109 
)ung occur in our collections, and we have, therefore, no evidence 
more than a single brood. That all are full-grown by autumn is 
•rtain, and in this condition they hibernate. 
INJURIES. 
To the Strawberry, 
The negro bug appears on the strawberry in April, choosing the 
ossoms as its favorite point of attack. Mr. Ayers, of Villa Ridge, 
ported to Dr. Le Baron that he had counted from ten to fifteen of 
lem m a single blossom, puncturing the plants with their beaks 
id causing them to wilt and perish. Prof. Riley attributes to it 
ie same noxious effect on flower and fruit, but says that it does 
ie mischief by puncturing the stem. Concerning the amount of 
image which this insect may do, we have little exact information, 
has not been sufficiently common in strawberry fields under my 
vn observation to exhibit its powers of mischief. In Canada it 
is been reported as “very troublesome;” in Alton it is said to 
ive occurred “in swarms” upon the strawberries, and judging from 
e effects of its assaults on other plants, it seems capable of 
rious annoyance to the strawberry grower. 
To Wheat, 
This species has not heretofore been reported as an enemy to 
heat, but my suspicions were aroused bv its abundance in fields 
| that grain, at Carbondale, in April, 1883, where numbers of adults 
; Bre taken in the sweep-net. The freedom of the wheat from weeds, 
! ade it altogether probable that the negro bugs were living at the 
pense of the growing grain. From a farmer in Montgomery 
•unty, I received in June some examples of this insect, with the 
formation that it was “literally killing the wheat.” “To-day,” he 
,ys, “in traveling beside a wheat field, I noticed that the road was 
ive with them; and, on getting into the field, I found that four¬ 
ths of the wheat was dead. The grain was shriveled, or had been 
lied before the kernel was shaped. I have heard several farmers 
ention the fact that the bugs are in their fields.” 
A few days after, in Perry county, the same species was found 
j/ry abundant in fields of wheat stubble, by an assistant, to whom 
farmer said that the platform of his reaper had been black with 
em when he cut the grain. These were gathered, after the wheat 
is cut, upon the weeds among the grain, that upon which they 
Bre most common being apparently the ordinary wild Coreopsis of 
e region (Coreopsis lanceolata), although it was not yet in blossom 
the time. 
In a recent letter to Mr. A. T. Strange, of Walshville, from whom 
e information quoted above was received, I expressed some doubt 
aether the injury noticed in heading wheat was really due to this 
sect, and he replied to me, giving the following reasons for 
Iieving them to be the author of the mischief: “I found them 
a wheat field near my house, in great quantities, over about one 
j :re of ground; I saw some of them on the wheat stalks, and in 
