PARASITIC FUNGI. JO 
were massed in greatest abundance, giving preference to the lower 
and damper localities in the fields. 
After the distribution had been finished, the sections where the out- 
break of chinch bugs had been the most severe and where the larger 
portion of the Sporotrichum had been distributed were visited. There 
was certainly no mistaking the effect of the fungus. Going to the 
place in a field (generally a wheat field) where the fungus had been 
introduced, the track of the chinch bugs as they moved in any direc- 
{ion was in many cases almost lterally paved with the dead bugs 
more or less enveloped in their winding sheets of white. Along 
ravines, dead furrows, or other depressions, the ground would be 
nearly white, the dead diminishing in numbers as the higher grounds 
were reached, though these were by no means free from corpses. In 
one instance the bugs had left a field of wheat at harvest, the Spo- 
rotrichum having been applied there before the movement began, 
and entered an adjoining cornfield. The way was marked with 
white, not only the surface of the ground, but on stirring up the 
mellow soil of the edge of the cornfield it was found to be literally 
full of dead chinch bugs to the depth of 2 or 3 inches, the white 
fungus-covered bodies strongly contrasting with the black color of 
the rich loam. Not only this, but under the sheaths of the leaves 
and on the leaves themselves hundreds of dead were to be found on 
the outer rows of corn, on the grass and weeds, and, indeed, almost 
everywhere. Millions of chinch bugs were certainly destroyed in this 
one field. 
In other fields, where the number of bugs had been less, the dead 
were less numerous, and then they were more apt to be scattered over 
the leaves of the corn, as in such cases a diseased bug seems to be ani- 
mated with a desire to crawl upward on any object which presents 
itself, just as a larva of the clover-leaf weevil, Phytonomus punctatus 
Fab., when attacked by E'ntomophthora spherosperma (Fres.) will 
climb to the tip of a vertical blade of grass and coil itself around it, 
and, holding it in the grasp of death, remain in that position so 
strongly attached that the winds and rains fail to dislodge it until it 
has become disintegrated. In other localities, where no Sporotrichum 
had been distributed, the ravages had certainly been greater and the 
writer failed to find any indication of the presence of the fungus. 
So far as his observation extended, unless there were a sufficient 
number of chinch bugs massed to become injurious, the fungus had 
but little effect upon them. In other words, the massing appeared 
to be an essential requisite. Whether this was sufficient of itself, or 
whether the effect of massing was to reduce the vitality of the indi- 
vidual bug, and thus render it more susceptible to the spores of the 
fungus, it is impossible for the writer to decide; but he has long 
