18 
THE CHINCH BUG. 
HABITS. 
With tbe warm days of spring the hibernating individuals issue from 
their winter quarters aud copulate. Dr. Shinier has described a love* 
flight which he noticed at this time. The date was May 16, 1865, and 
the atmosphere was swarming with Chinch Bugs on the wing. As 
shown by Walsh and Biley (Am. Ent., I, 173) it is probable that this 
occurrence was exceptional, and that the insects do not normally mate 
in this way ; that the swarming flight w 7 as the result of a great abun- 
dance of the insects. The insect flies in spring and fall, and also some- 
what in late July and early August, as the first brood becomes winged. 
In the fall they attain wings as the corn hardens, and their flight is 
theu the result of a starvation impulse. In July and August the flight 
of the fledged individuals of the first brood is not very common, except 
when they occur in exceptionally great numbers. During the past sea- 
son Professor Osborn observed them coupling at Ames prior to July 
25, while upon this date he observed them swarming in the air, flying 
past his window in immense numbers and with the wind (southeast to 
northwest). They were first noticed shortly after 1 p. m. July 27 
they were again noticed on the w ing, but not in such great numbers as 
before. They were flying with the wind, from northwest to southeast. 
August 3 hosts of them were observed on the wing, while others were 
coupling on the ground. Others w T ere observed coupling as late as 
August 16. The majority of the hibernating individuals seem, from 
the evidence, to copulate in the spring and without flying, but, accord- 
ing to Professor Biley, many of them make love in the fall preparatory 
to seeking winter quarters, aud Mr. James O. Alwood, of Columbus, 
Ohio, writes that he found them copulating in a field of uncut Pearl 
Millet at the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station as late as October 
27, 1887. 
The eggs of - the Chinch Bug, which we have already described, and 
which are figured at Fig. 1, a, &, are laid in the spring for the first 
brood, and usually underground and upon the roots of plants infested. 
They are, however, often found above ground upon the withered 
sheaths near the bases of the grain stalks or often upon the blades of 
the leaves. They are deposited in small clusters. Professor Biley says : 
A wheat plant pulled from an infested field in the spring of the year will gener- 
ally reveal hundreds of these eggs attached to the roots, aud at a somewhat later 
period the yonng larvae will be found clustering on the same and looking like so many 
moving atoms. 
The eggs are not specially small when we consider the small size of 
the female which lays them. Dr. Shimer says that each female lays 500, 
and this seems very large until we reflect that they are not all deposited 
at once, and that after the laying of the first few others are probably 
developing in the ovaries, for the process of oviposition occupies from 
ten days to three weeks. It has long been known that the eggs were laid 
in the ground, although an accurate description was much more recently 
