85 



fested belt extends clear across the State from north to south. Scattering reports of the 

 presence of the bugs are in from various eastern counties, and from a few west of the 98'^ 

 30' line. 



Up to date (11 a.m., July 15) infected bugs have been sent out from my laboratory 

 to 1,700 applicants. To several of these applicants second lots of infected bugs have been 

 sent, owing to failure to use the first lot for various reasons, and occasionally because of 

 failure to get good results from the first experiment. But as many, if not more, persons 

 have got dead bugs from fields wherein the bugs are dying because of infection sent out 

 from my laboratory as have received bugs directly from me. Each successful field ex- 

 periment has been the means of establishing a secondary distributing centre. It is 

 evident that the experiment of killing chinch bugs by infection with fungoid and bacterial 

 disease is being given a trial on a large scale. The reports for the past month (June 15 

 to July 15) have been gratifying, in that they show a good percentage of success. How- 

 ever, reports are not made out as carefully as they should be, and worse, many experi- 

 menters make no reports. I desire to have a report on every lot of infected bugs sent 

 out. 



Because of the difficulty of getting careful reports from the field, I sent out Mr. E. 

 C. Hickey, an intelligent university student doing special work in natural history, as a 

 fi^eld agent. Mr. Hickey's last trip was through Chautauqua, Harvey, Sumner, Cowley, 

 Butler, Greenwood, and Elk Counties, lasting from June 12 to July 6. He visited 

 seventy-two persons who had experimented with infected bugs, and found over 80 per 

 cent, of the seventy-two experiments successful. Mr. Hickey personally visited the corn 

 fields, and verified by careful observations the statements of the farmers. 



The laboratory facilities for sending out infected bugs have been largely increased, 

 and all demands can be promptly met. Application for infected bugs received in the 

 morning's mail are answered with bugs and directions on the noon outgoing trains, The 

 work of scientific investigation in the laboratory is going on steadily and carefully. In- 

 oculation experiments from pure cultures of Sporotrichum will be reported on next month. 

 A feature of the work unnoticed previously in this report is the prevalence of Empusa, 

 the fungus with which the first successful experiments were conducted. Empusa and 

 Sporotrichum develop side by side in the infecting cages, and dead bugs sent in from 

 fields where the bugs are dying show both fungi. At the close of the season I hope to 

 present a full report of the laboratory investigations, which the brief monthly reports 

 oflTer no space for. Prof. S. A. Forbes, the eminent State entomologist of Illinois, who 

 has experimented in his laboratory on the development of parasitic fungi in insects and 

 who early noted the bacterial disease of the chinch bugs, visited my laboratory last week. 

 He expressed the hope that a series of field experiments such as are now being carried on 

 in Kansas could be conducted in Illinois. 



In closing, I may say that the outcome of the work so far this year is highly en- 

 couraging. 



Since making this report the requests for infected bugs have grown much less 

 numerous. The laboratory experiments have been carried on with more attention paid 

 to bacteria. So far I have been unable to successfully infect bugs in the laboratory from 

 pure cultures of Sporotrichum. The Sporotrichum grows readily on a medium composed 

 of beef broth and Irish moss, and pure cultures are easily obtained. Other experiments 

 with these cultures are necessary, however, to make this statement i)Ositive. Empusa 

 will not fruit on the plates. It behaves very peculiarly. Long erect filaments are sent 

 out strikingly different from the customary hyphpe, but no spores are produced. As re- 

 gards the bacteria, I am assured that the forms in my cultures are identical with Burrill's 

 Micrococcus insectorum, two slides of which have been furnished me by Professor Forbes. 

 This Micrococcus is found almost without exception in bugs which have died in the field 

 and been sent in for examination. Another Micrococcus, larger and almost perfectly cir- 

 cular in optical plane, is often present in dead and dying bugs. Spraying experiments 

 with fluids containing this Micrococcus give no successful results in infection. 



I am not in position at present to make a full report of the season's work in the field 

 and laboratory. This report I shall make late in the fall. 



