42 PAPERS ON CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECTS. 
and under varying weather conditions. Most of the observations 
were made in Sumner County, Kans., where the fungus had proba- 
bly been present among the bugs in the fields for a number of years. 
Considerable fungus was present during 1908 and 1909. 
It again appeared among the chinch bugs in southern Kansas 
during April, 1910, and was first observed in the fields April 18 on the 
dead bodies of some adults lying on the ground at the base of young 
wheat plants. From this date the fungus gradually increased, dead 
adults covered with fungus being found almost every day. These 
were always on the soil, or slightly buried beneath the surface, about 
the roots of wheat. 
During the first week of May the weather was cool and rainy, the 
mean temperature of the week being 59° F. and precipitation 0.75 
inch for four days. The bugs, during this period, were sluggish and 
sought shelter under blades of wheat or any trash that would keep 
them off the ground. Succeeding this week of wet weather, followed 
two hot days, with a mean temperature each of 68.5° F. and 79.5° 
F. At the end of this period the following note was made: 
A number of dead bugs were found lying on the ground, their bodies whitened with 
the fungus. One plant had 7 dead, fungus-covered bugs at its base. No young bugs 
found covered with the fungus. 
From notes of May 18: 
A great many old bugs are dead and covered with the Sporotrichum, but failed to 
find any young bugs covered with this fungus. The dead bugs are on the surface of 
the soil. 
About this time the young bugs which had hatched from the eggs 
deposited in the wheat were massed together about the bases of the 
wheat plants. Where the wheat had winter-killed, and had been 
torn up and corn listed into the ground, the bugs which hatched on 
the wheat had gone to the nearest corn plants. Some stalks of these 
plants were red from the myriads of young bugs assembled upon 
them; in no case could any fungus be found on these young bugs, 
but there were usually a few overwintering adults to be seen about 
the base of these plants, and upon turning over a clod some of their 
dead bodies covered with Sporotrichum were usually to be found. 
Plenty of the fungus could be found at this time in wheat fields where 
the adult hibernating bugs were still present. Sporotrichum grad- 
ually became more abundant during the succeeding days of May and 
early part of June, the amount observed seeming to fluctuate with 
the weather, being most abundant while it was damp and cool and 
checked by a few days of dry weather. It developed most rapidly 
in wheat fields during the first 10 days of June, while the bugs, both 
young and old, were migrating from the wheat to the corn, the fungus 
being at this time abundant on dead adults in contact with the soil 
and in some cases on the bodies of young dead bugs. 
