STUDIES ON THE CHINCH BUG* II. 
(Blissus leucopterus, Say.) 
The economic entomology of this State has been distinguished, 
during the last four years, by the longest period of continuous 
chinch bug devastation known in the history of that insect; but as 
evidences of the disappearance of this outbreak are now (Septem¬ 
ber 30) beginning to accumulate, it is perhaps not too soon to write 
its history. 
Its beginnings were apparent in 1885, when noticeable injuries 
to corn were reported from ten counties of Southern Illinois.f In 
1880, thirty counties of that region were seriously damaged, Wash¬ 
ington county (about the center of destruction) being perhaps 
worst infested. In 1887 the loss was severe in thirty-eight 
counties of the southern district, and very noticeable in thirty- 
seven others of Northern and Western IllinoisJ; while in 1888 
small grain and, corn were heavily infested throughout all the 
southern counties, favorable weather alone enabling the crops to 
withstand the injury better than the year preceding. The attack 
was now considerably diminished in the center of the affected area, 
but farther to the east, in Clay, Richland, and Crawford counties, 
it was much heavier in the beginning of the season than the pre¬ 
ceding year, its force decreasing, however, with the disappearance 
of the first generation. On the extreme southern borders of the 
State, on the other hand, it continued with undiminislied severity, 
the damage done in 1888 being greater than that in 1887,—greater 
in Pope and Pulaski counties, 1 was informed, than ever before 
j since their settlement. There was thus apparent a wave-like prop¬ 
agation outward from the center above mentioned, the crest of 
the wave of increase requiring two years to pass from Washing¬ 
ton county to the Ohio River. A similar gradual increase north¬ 
ward was demonstrated by a comparison of the numbers of chinch 
bugs in early spring of 1887 with those of the summer and fall, 
in the counties of Montgomery, Christian, and Shelby. 
♦For Article I,of this series, see 12th Reportof the State Entomologist of Illinois, 1S82, pp. 32-63. 
fSee “Miscellaneous Essays on Economic Entomology’’ in Appendix to Transactions Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, Illinois, 1885, (vol. 23), p. 23. 
JSee table of injuries by counties on pp. 5 and 6. The loss In Illinois was computed for 1887, by 
J. R. Dodge, Statistician of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, at $11,840,000. (See report of the 
Commissioner of Agriculture for 1887, p. 56.) 
