The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Plant-bug

PLANT-BUG, a bug of any of several families of Hemiptera, which obtain their food by sucking the juices of plants through beak-like mouths. The largest group is the family Coreidæ consisting of at least 1,500 species, some of which are dreaded pests of cultivated crops and trees. Two well-known species are the box-elder plant-bug (Leptocoris trivittatus), which is especially troublesome in the western States, where the box-elder is largely planted as a windbreak and for timber; and the squash-bug (Anasa tristis), which is an incorrigible enemy of squashes, pumpkins, cucumbers, etc. (See ). The Lygsidæ include fully 1,300 species, nearly 200 of which are known in America, and of which one of the most widely destructive is the little chinch-bug, a pest upon certain cereal crops. The Pyrrhocoridæ is a small family, but contains several serious pests, of which the cotton stainer or red-bug (Dysdurcas suturellus) is a pest in the southeastern United States. It feeds upon orange fruits and cotton. Consult Comstock, &lsquo;Manual for the Study of Insects&rsquo; (1895); Smith, &lsquo;Manual of Economic Entomology&rsquo; (1896); Howard, &lsquo;The Insect Book&rsquo; (new ed., 1914).