j24 
lias proved one of the worst of the many difficulties encountered in | 
n\ business Many fields of berries that promised a large ciop up I 
to a“few days before picking, have been known to wither up and [ 
disappear so as to be almost total failures. _ I 
“For the last two weeks I have noticed these green insects on the I 
berries and have wondered what they were doing, but I did not pay , 
much attention to them till last Saturday morning, when I made 
the°unpleasant discovery that many of ^fthlT thet Zc \ 
bidlv. It then occurred to me, lor the first time, that these insects g 
micdit be connected with the trouble. I have since examined all out I 
fields quite carefully, and have been in several others, both here and I 
at Oobden, and I am now quite thoroughly convinced that sue u I 
“This is a trouble beside which the crown-borer and root-worm I 
sink into insignificance, but I do not think any one lias thought o 
charging it to insects before. I judge it has already damaged our S 
croo to the extent of from five to ten thousand dollars. 1 lie weather I 
has been Quite dry for the past month, which has I suppose , 
increased the trouble. As I write a fine shower u falling, which! 
will I hope, check further injury for the present. 
Accompanying this letter was a vial of insects, which proved on 
examination to be all adults and young m various stage*, of Lygm J 
hneolaris In consequence ot this information, I spent the time l 
from the 17th to the 22d of May in the strawberry fields at Anna,!. 
Oobden Villa Ridge and Oentralia, thoroughly and carefulml 
searching twenty-live different fields, with Bo}e reference to the, 
relations of this insect to the injury complained ot. Ilie tar 
nishecl plant bug was by far the commonest insect m these stra# 
bprrv fiplrls occurring in numbers many times exceeding those ot 
all the other species taken together, except at Centraha where tl 
duskv plant bug, Derceocoris rapidas, was scarcely less abundant. Id 
the st?awberry° fields at Anna, probably not far from one-ten 
were aduhs most, if not all of them, having recen ly transfom 
from the pupa; while the remainder were of all stages, trom m 
niipa to those iust hatched. At Villa Ridge, a somewhat greatej 
ratio of adults was noticed, while at Centralia the ratio was no| 
especially different. J 
Wherever these insects occurred in a strawberry held, they ve 
seen only upon the fruit. Even where abundant, there would b 
none upon many of the berries, and upon others from one to thufiji 
or four. Ordinarily, when undisturbed, they seemed to_ neslM 
between the hull and the base of the berry; and it is pii-obabl > 1.d 
it was from this point that they abstracted the sap. 1^ '' 
quite active in their habits, especially in the heat of the day, tb • 
adults flying readily, and the young escaping with agility. 
The injury complained of, and presumably due to the bags, cot 
stated ofk drying and hardening of the beri-y before he wcepU 
expanded, leaving the fruit hard and small and black if the lnjuiy « 
total or knobbed at the tip or deformed at one side, if mcompletl 
It was noticed that the seeds upon the affected berries were plutc ! 
and well-filled, on the shrunken parts as well as eisewhere. Th 
seems to be a character by which the buttoning ot the beiiif. 
