110 



PSYCHE. 



[September— October iSSS. 



G. semlopacus ]e\i. 1. c. p. 612. 

 melskei?neri ^q\s.. 1. c, p. 613. 



Cnemotrupes Jekel. 

 G. egeriei Germ. Ins. Spec, i, p. 144. 



lecontel 9 Jek- 1- c, p. 592. 

 G. opacus Hald. Proc. Acad. 1853, p. 

 362. 

 haldeina)n ]Q\i. 1. c, p. 593. 

 c/ievro/ati ]ek. 1. c, p. 595. 

 G. blackbin-nii Fabr, Spec. Insect, i, 

 p. 30, no. §5, 

 excrementi Say, Jour. Acad, iii, p. 

 210. 



var. jekellii Horn 1. c, p. 317. 



conicollis ]ti\K. 1. c, jd. 1^91. 

 G. ulkei n. sp. 

 G. occidoitalls. Horn Trans, v. viii, 



p. 144. 



Melanotrupes. 

 G. hornii n. sp. 



Peltotrupes. 



G. chalybaeus Lee. Proc. Am. Phil. 

 Soc. V. xvii, p. 402. 



NOTE ON CHINCH BUG DISEASES. 



BY STEPHEN ALFRED FORBES, CHAMPAIGN, ILL. 



Two diseases o^i Blissjisleitcopterus., 

 apparently efficient in suppressing an 

 outbreak of this species in 1882, were 

 described by me in my Report for that 

 year as State Entomologist of Illinois 

 (pp. 47-54) ; but neither of these has 

 been distinctly recognized since, until 

 the present season. Now, however, 

 the chinch bugs of the southern part of 

 Illinois are being very rapidly destroyed 

 by both these diseases, and a third not 

 hitherto recognized, — the last (seen by 

 me first in July, 1887) due to a Botrytis 

 distinct from the species {^B . bassiana') 

 well known as the characteristic fungus 

 of muscardine in the silkworm. 



One of the two first mentioned is 

 caused by an E7tto}nophthora whose 

 specific affinities I have not been able 

 to learn. 



The other is due to a microbe (the 



Micrococcus insectoruni of Burrill*) 

 principally developed in the alimentary 

 canal, and especially in its co^cal ap- 

 pendages, which are often literally 

 crammed with it from end to end. 

 This disease somewhat resembles that 

 known as schlaffsucht or JJacherie in 

 the literature of the silkwoi m. Its germ 

 is freely cultivable both in beef broth 

 and in solid gelatine media, by the 

 processes usual in bacterial investiga- 

 tion. 



Both the Eiito7}iophthora and the 

 Botrytis finally imbed the insect in a 

 white fungus, — the efflorescence of a 

 spore-bearing mycelium. The Bo- 

 trytis has been much more abundant 



♦American Naturalist XVII, p. 319. This microbe, 

 studied anew by Prof. Burrill from my recent cultures, 

 solid and fluid, and from the affected chinch bugs them- 

 selves, proves to be a Bacillus of peculiar character, 

 and not a Micrococcus. 



