THE REACTION OF CERTAIN GRASSES TO CHINCH-BUG 
ATTACK 1 
By Wm. P. Hayes, Formerly Assistant Entomologist , Kansas Agricultural 
Experiment Station , and C. O. Johnston, Assistant Pathologist , Office of Cereal 
Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry , United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture 
INTRODUCTION 
The bunch grasses of the prairies in the natural state are known to 
be the hibernating place of the chinch bug (Blissus leucopterus Say), 
which migrates from these grasses to cultivated members of the 
grass family (Poaceae), such as wheat, corn, and the sorghums. It 
is of special interest, therefore, to know what occurs when other 
grasses are attacked, both the effect on the grass, and, either because 
of slight injury or recovery, the extent to which it might serve as a 
hibernating medium. Chinch bugs have been recorded as attack¬ 
ing a number of grasses, but there seems to be no extended discus¬ 
sion in the literature on the importance of the grass family, other 
than cultivated crops, as food for chinch bugs. Webster 2 and 
Horton and Satterthwait 3 list a number of wild or native grasses 
attacked by this species. The present paper, besides greatly ex¬ 
tending the previous lists of known food plants, seeks to show the 
degree of injury to the host plants and their ability to recover from 
injury. 
During the summer of 1924, an opportunity occurred to record the 
data assembled here. A special grass garden of the Department of 
Botany and Plant Pathology of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment 
Station, containing about 100 grasses, used primarily for studies 
on the overwintering of leaf-rust of wheat, was located at the station 
on land adjoining wheat plots of a winter-wheat nursery in which 
there appeared large numbers of chinch bugs. The wheat was cut 
about July 1, and the bugs migrated to the adjacent grass garden. 
By July 8, injury to the various grasses was manifested in such 
varying degrees that it was deemed advisable to record the differ¬ 
ences. A few weeks later, the chinch bugs left the grasses and 
journeyed to neighboring corn and sorghum. Rainfall was abundant 
after August 1, and some plants began to show signs of recovery. 
By August 18 the differences were so marked that notes on tne 
ability to recover were taken. 
CULTURE OF GRASSES 
The grass garden has been maintained for a number of years and 
many of the rows consisted of large, robust plants at least two years 
of age. In maintaining this garden those grasses which survive 
> Received for publication Dec. 8,1924: issued October. 1925. Contribution No. 339, Department of Ento 
mology, and No. 230, Department of Botany. This paper embodies some of the results obtained in the 
prosecution of Projects Nos. 76 and 92 of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. 
2 Webster, F. M. the chinch bug. U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers’ Bui. 657, p. 7,1915. 
3 Horton, J. R., and Satterthwait, A. F. the chinch bug and its control. U. S. Dept. Agr. 
Farmers’ Bui. 1223, p. 35, 1922. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
( 575 ) 
Vol. XXXI, No. 6 
Sept. 15,1925 
Key No. Kans.4 
