6 THE FRIT-FLY. 



periments. The jars containing such spores were kept over 

 winter in warm rooms, cold rooms, and out of doors; in 

 either case the spores could not be made to germinate in 

 spring, and only those that were taken from the bugs killed 

 by the disease could be successfully utilized to start fresh 

 cultures. 



The question is often asked : does this fungus, the spores 

 of w^hich are distributed, always kill the bugs? The more 

 the writer and his assistant have worked with this plant 

 the less do they feel satisfied with it as a remedy upon which 

 we can depend. No doubt immense numbers of chinch-bugs 

 are covered with the fungus in the fields v^here the disease is 

 found, but the question naturally arises : does the disease 

 kill healthy bugs or only those that are already feeble and 

 that would die whether the disease was present or not? 

 Notwithstanding the many very favorable reports received 

 from farmers that have used the spores it remains still an 

 open question whether it is not after all safer to use the 

 other remedies proposed in the First Annual Report than 

 to depend entirely upon the introduction of spores. 



Fig. 1 (plate I) shows this injurious insect in its different 

 stages of growth. A single egg is shown in(^/,as well as others 

 upon the roots and upon a lower leaf. In h is shown the 

 very young bug, and in c, d, and e the later stages, while f 

 shows the adult and mature insect. All the figures are en- 

 larged; their natural size is indicated, however, by the hair- 

 lines near them, and bugs, natural size, are also shown upon 

 the stems of the infested plant. 



THE FRIT-FLY. 



( Oscinis soi'or Macq.). 



During the summer and early part of the fall numerous 

 letters were received from man}- parts of the state, in which 

 the w^riters complained about minute -worms which infested 

 the stems of wheat just above a joint from three to four 

 inches above the ground. The specimens received at the 

 same time showed that, as a general rule, the first and 

 second joints of the plant were infested. Some farmers com- 

 plained that their crop of wheat was thus ver}- materially 



