96 
contact takes place but slowly, ss ark during an excess of 
moisture the conidia are washed o the ewend and perish, 
while the larve or caterpillars do Rig tiays about, and contact- 
inoculation is arrested. During calm, damp wiatiie the results 
are, as already aie, satisfactory. 
France the most destructive insect pest is ane Mary W ibe 
common cockchafer—Velolontha vulgaris, Lin now 
ver blane, and the fungus utilised for its cacoaien is ss 
In the United States the “chinch bug ”—Blissus leucopterus, 
Say—is very destructive to cereals. The fungus used for its 
destruction is Sporotrichum —. Speg., and, after the 
expenditure of a considerable of time and money, 
Professor Duggar, of the Comal wAGeealtea Experiment 
Station, has expressed his opinion that, although effecting a 
certain amount of good at times, the outcome is not sufficiently 
efficient to be of any practical value. 
A far greater measure of success appears to have attended the 
attempt to exterminate the devastating hordes of locusts, more 
espe “= the red-winged locust—Acridium purpuriferum, 
k.—in South Africa, by means of a fungous parasite. 
The favyrun was first observed, and its significance realised om 
1896, by Mr. A. W. Cooper, of Richmond, Natal, who dem 
strated that it could be readily as ee it proved fatal it in 
its effects on locusts, and that i ve ontagious. (Agri- 
cultural Journal, Cane of Good ae Viii., 1896, pp. 330-331.) 
Mr. Cooper afterwards continued his investigations on the 
locust fungus in the Cape of Good Hope Colonial Bacteriological 
Institute, being aided by Dr. Black of that Institution, with the 
result that pure —- were produced in large quantities, and 
— to cee Te mall amount of the fungus were sold to 
t sixpence pies n the report of the above-mentioned 
oe aie for 1898, Dr. Edington, the Director, gives a fuller 
t of the fungus, accompanied by extracts from persons 
who had proved its efficacy on a large scale. The method of its 
application is so simple that the natives can use it with benefit. 
Dr. Edington thi — the fungus probably belongs to the Ento- 
; ; 
mopht be 
conclusively that the fungus isa species of Mucor’. Up to 
present, however, the fungus has been distributed as “ the on 
fungus,” and no scientific name has been used. 
Quite recently Mr. C. P. Lounsburg, Government Entomologist, 
Cape of Good Hope, addressed a letter to Kew, asking for a correct 
determination of the fungus, which i 
utility as a destroyer of locusts, it was presumed might also be of 
value in destroying fruit-tree caterpillars. In the 
me, 
Mr. D. McAlpine, Government Vegetable Pathologist of Victoria, 
had announced® t Cape eshte fungus was Mucor race- 
g the “locust fungus,” two from Natal 
and four Cape Colony, acco mpanied the letter from 
Mr. Lounsburg, and, on cultivation, proved to be pure cultures 
Six tubes containin 
from 
