198 
HEMIPTERA. 
Fig. 84. 
contained in the first volume of their interesting “ Introduc- 
tion to Entomology.” “ America suffers in its wheat and 
maize from the attack of an insect, which, for what reason I 
know not, is called the chinch-hug fly. It appears to be 
apterous, and is said in scent and color to resemble the bed- 
bug. They travel in immense columns from field to field, like 
locusts, destroying everything as they proceed ; hut their 
injuries are confined to the States south of the 40th degree of 
north latitude. From this account,” add Kirby and Spence, 
“ the depredator here noticed should belong to the tribe 
Greocoi'isce, Latr. ; but it seems very difficult to conceive how 
an insect that lives by suction, and has no mandibles, could 
destroy these plants so totally.” 
I have ascertained, from an examination of living speci- 
mens, that the chinch-bug is the Lygceus Leucopterus (Fig. 
84), or white-winged Lygseus, described by 
Mr. Say, in December, 1831, in a rare 
little pamphlet on the “ Heteropterous Ile- 
miptera of North America.” It appears, 
moreover, to belong to the modern genus 
Rhyp>arochromus. In its perfect state it is 
not apterous, but is provided with wings, 
and then measures about three twentieths 
of an inch in length. It is readily distinguished by its white 
wing-covers, upon each of which there is a short central 
line and a large marginal oval spot of a black color. The 
rest of the body is black and downy, except the beak, the 
legs, the antennae at base, and the hinder edge of the thorax, 
which are reddish yellow, and the fore part of the thorax, 
which has a grayish lustre. The young and wingless indi- 
viduals are at first bright red, changing with age to brown 
and black, and are always marked with a white band across 
the back. It is a mistake that these insects are confined to 
the States south of the 40th degree ; for I have been favored 
with them by Professor Lathrop, of Beloit College, Wiscon- 
sin, and by Dr. Le Baron, of Geneva, Illinois. The latter 
