State Agricultural Soote-i-t. 513 
Black-lined Plant-bug, Phytocoris lineatus, Pal). (Hemiptera. 
Capsid*.) 
In June, freckling with rusty yellow spots the leaves of the currant, weigelia and 
other shrubs, and withering by their punctures the flower-buds of the dahlia, rose 
and other plants; an oblong bright lemon yellow bug three-tenths of an inch in 
length and marked with four black stripes. 
The latter part of May and in June, two or three contiguous leaves 
of the currant, the weigelia and several other shrubs and plants may 
frequently be noticed with several small blackish spots, looking very 
much as though they had been spattered with drops of pale ink which 
has become dried upon them. It is usually some of the more tender 
young leaves at or near the ends of the stalks which are thus freckled. 
The spots which appear earliest in the season are small, mere dots of 
an irregular roundish form. Those which are made at a later date 
are longer, nearly or quite one-tenth of an inch across. When the 
leaf is held up between the eye and the light these spots are found to 
be semi-transparent, and a close inspection shows that they arc caused 
by the opalce green pulp or parenchyma of the leaf having been 
removed, only a slight stain of green remaining on the transparent 
skin of the upper side of the leaf. 
When they are two or three days old these spots become changed 
to a yellow or brownish yellow color, the leaves then appearing as 
though they were struck with rust (parasitic fungi of the genus Uredo 
or _ Ecidium) or some similar disease. They are now much more 
conspicuous and more apt to be noticed than when they first appear. 
And those parts of the leaf where they are most dense, after some 
days become dead, dry and brittle; and in the end, by the winds 
rustling the leaves together and violence from other causes, these 
dead portions become broken away, making ragged holes in the leaves 
or notches in their sides. 
Newly made blackish spots continue to appear, day after day, inter¬ 
spersed among the yellow ones where they are not dense, or upon the 
contiguous leaves one after another, until frequently several leaves 
become thus freckled. On searching for the cause of this mischief, 
upon the under side of a leaf on which the blackish spots occur, there 
"’dl usually be found a small glossy bug of a tawny yellow and black 
color, in the fore part of June, or later in the season a larger pale 
\ cl low bug striped with black. It quietly resides upon the under 
side of the leaf where it is hid from view, nourishing itself by insert- 
>ug the point of its sharp needle-like beak into the leaf and sucking 
the soft juicy pulp from each cell which it punctures, thus producing 
[Ag.] 65 
