8 THE WHITE-FUNGUS DISEASE IN KANSAS. 
where lying on the ground, covered with the common mold of decomposing ani- 
mal matter, and nothing else, even when examined by the microscope. Even of 
those that migrated to the cornfields a few weeks ago in such numbers as to 
cover the lower half of the cornstalks, very few are to be found remaining 
alive; but the ground around the base of the corn hills is almost literally coy- 
ered with their moldering, decomposing bodies. This is a matter of so common 
occurrence as to be observed and often spoken of by the farmers. They are 
dead everywhere, not lying on the ground alone, but sticking to the blades and 
stalks of corn in great numbers, in all stages of development. 
Entomologists were slow to accept Dr. Shimer’s theory of an 
epidemic disease. Walsh and Riley ridiculed the idea, and Le Baron 
six years later declared that he knew of no predaceous parasitic 
enemies of the chinch bug. Later observations, however, confirmed 
the accuracy of Dr. Shimer’s observations. 
Evidence of disease among chinch bugs was not again reported 
until 1882, when Dr. S. A. Forbes, of Ilinois,!* and Prof. Popenoe, of 
Kansas,' both reported localities in their respective States in which 
the bugs were dying with a fungus disease which embedded the dead 
bugs in a growth of white mold. 
In August of the same year Dr. Forbes discovered what he thought 
was a bacterial disease due to a bacillus which he found in great num- 
bers in the alimentary canal of dead bugs; 1° but after a thorough in- 
vestigation, which extended through several years, he ascertained that 
the presence of the bacillus was a normal condition in the alimentary 
canal of healthful chinch bugs, and the theory of a bacterial disease 
was abandoned. 
The fungus disease noted by Dr. Forbes and Prof. Popenoe was 
what is commonly known as the gray fungus, Hmpusa aphidis. 
What fungus was responsible for the disease among the bugs reported 
by Dr. Shimer can not be ascertained. The white fungus had not yet 
been detected. This fungus was first observed by Dr. Forbes in 
Clinton County, Il., July 7, 1887, and again on August 7, 1888.°° *4 
For more than a year this fungus affection was not found among chinch bugs, 
although a close watch was kept for it, but August 7, 1888, it was seen at Flora, 
in Clay County, fastening dead bugs to leaves of corn. 
Almost simultaneously it was reported from Minnesota,*? Iowa,’ 
Ohio, and Kansas.*° 
It is worthy of note that no evidence of disease among chinch bugs 
was noted for about 80 years after the chinch bug became known as a 
serious pest, and it was 100 years after its first appearance that the 
white fungus was definitely recognized. It is also all the more re- 
markable in view of the prevalence of the disease over such a wide 
area at this time and during the years following. If these diseases 
were present among the bugs from the first, it seems strange that 
they were not detected earlier, and if they were in the process of in- 
troduction it seems strange that almost simultaneously they should 
be so plentiful in so many different, widely separated localities. It 
