STUDIES ON THE CHINCH-BUG*—I. 
(Blissas leucopterus, Say.) 
I 
I 
Order HEMIPTERA. Family Lygaeidje. 
Fin. 6.—Chinch-bug (Blissus leucopterus , Say.) Adult and young, a and b, eggs; c, young 
larva; d, tarsus, of same; e, larva after first moult; f, larva after second moult, g , pupa;. 
h leg of same; i, beak; k, adult. The line below shows the natural size. 
It requires neither figures nor rhetoric to enforce the importance 
to agriculture of this especially destructive and unmanageable pest 
of the grain fields. The fact that it is the most dangerous insect 
foe with which they have to deal—that it taxes them more heavily 
than all other such enemies combined, is burnt into the conviction 
of thousands of farmers by repeated heavy losses and bitter disap¬ 
pointment. 
Not the least serious feature of the situation is, the apparently 
uncontrollable character of its injuries. Notwithstanding the intel¬ 
ligent thought and energy which have been concentrated for more 
than a generation on this insect, it has continued to thrive ns 
little affected by any action which human ingenuity has brought to 
bear upon it as is the course of the weather or the orbit of the 
earth. Its coming and its going, its abundance and its scarcity, 
seem regulated by causes, thus far, beyond our reach. 
It may be that the control of this pest is an impossibility, but 
as long as there remains a “fighting chance” to the contrary, if 
will constitute a standing challenge to the intelligence and enter¬ 
prise of the country, and one which the economic entomologist 
* Summary statements of the results of these studies will be found on pp 38, 56 and .63. 
