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| Dysdercus suturellus |
Leaf-bugs, or plant bugs are bugs of he family
Capsidae, which suck the juices of plants. Two hundred and fifty of the thousand or more species described occur in ihe United States, and all except the predaceous species are vegetable feeders, a few being considered pests. They are generally oval or elongated, yellowish or greenish, sometimes with lines or dots of red or black. All have a decidedly «buggy» odor. Among the best-known species are the red-bug or colton-stainer (
Dysdercus suturellus), so called because its excrement airs the cotton in the opening boíl, thus reducing the grade. It is less troublesome than formerly because the piles of cottonseed in which it used to breed are now used for oil instead of being thrown in heaps to decay. The insect also altacks oranges in Florida. Cottonseed will attract them away from the trees. Another species troublesome on currants, goose-berries, dahlias, etc., is the four-lined leaf-bug (
Pascilocapsus lineatus). Its eggs are laid in the young twigs which may be cut in autumn or winter and burned. The insects may also be jarred off the plants into receptacles while sluggish in the early morning.
