October, ’18] 
FLINT: CHINCH-BUG ENEMIES 
415 
INSECT ENEMIES OF THE CHINCH-BUG 
By W. P. Flint, Assistant Entomologist , Urbana, III. 
While the chinch-bug occupies a very prominent place in the writ¬ 
ings of economic entomologists, up to the time of the discovery of its 
egg parasite, Eumicrosoma benefica Gahan, by McColloch in Kansas 
in 1913, but very little detailed study had been given to its predaceous 
or parasitic insect enemies. 
Walsh in some of his earlier writings on the chinch-bug says that it 
is attacked by four species of ladybugs, the most efficient being Hip- 
podamia maculata. 
Henry Shimer described in 1865 a new species of Chrysopa (C. 
illinoiensis) which he found in a cornfield feeding upon chinch-bugs, 
and reported that one of the larva of this species which he kept in 
confinement ate a dozen in quick succession. Later he reared Hippo - 
damia maculata from egg to adult by feeding it upon nothing but 
chinch-bugs. 
LeBaron mentions lace wing flies and ladybugs as the only insect 
enemies of the chinch-bug, but says that chinch-bugs are fewer than 
usual on hills of corn which have ant-hills at their base. 
Thomas states that the chinch-bug is fed upon by Hippodamia 
maculata. 
Riley says that the above mentioned insects feed upon the chinch- 
bug, and that he thinks ants are of some benefit in reducing its 
numbers. 
Forbes found from an examination of the stomach contents of a 
number of the common ground beetles found in fields infested by the 
chinch-bug that about a fifth of the food of Agonoderus pallipes was 
derived from chinch-bugs. 
Webster says that the chinch-bug has no insect enemies of impor¬ 
tance; he mentions that it is infested by a species of Mermis or hair 
snake, and that its worst insect enemies are to be found in its near 
relatives, the insidious flower bug ( Triphleps insidiosus) and Milyas 
cinctus. 
Headlee and McColloch report that besides the above mentioned 
insects, they have occasionally seen the false chinch-bug, Nysius an - 
gustatus, feeding upon the chinch-bug, and have repeatedly found three 
species of ground beetles, Harpalus compar, Evarthrus sodalis, and 
Anisodactylus harpaloides eating it. They also saw a cricket feeding 
on chinch-bugs and two of the small ants commonly found in grain 
fields, Solenopsis molesta and Monomorium minimum, carrying chinch- 
bug eggs and dead adults. 
