281 



A EUIIOPEAN WHITE GRU15 FUNGUS. 



Ill the Comptes Rendiis of the M\ of Aujiust, 181)1, M. Alfred (Hard 

 has given a sumiiiary of our iufonnation upon this interesting fungous 

 disease of the larvte of the European Coekchafer. He states that this 

 disease was first observe<l in epideinie form in Normandy in 18GG, and 

 was again discovered in Crermany in I8G1>. iSince the latter year it has 

 been found more or less commonly all through northern France. It 

 should be known scientifically as Tsaria densa Link, this name having 

 priority over Botrytis teriella Saccardo. The disease communicates 

 itself readily from one White Grub to another, and can be transmitted 

 equally well by inoculation or by aspersion to insects of different or- 

 ders, but the infested insects produce the spores spontaneously only 

 when they live underground or in a humid condition. Under contrary 

 conditi(nis the hyphas and the spores can be obtained by placing the 

 mummified insects in a moist chamber. The fungus can be easily cul- 

 tivated, not only upon meat, as the old observers have stated, but also, 

 as M. Giard was the first to show, upon the most varial)le solid or liquid 

 media. These cultures can be.made at all seasons, and the dried spores 

 will retain their germinating capacity for more than a year. ' The fun- 

 gus can be ex[)erimentally communicated to the Silk- worm, but there 

 are few chances for this disease to occasion ej)idemic in the magnaner- 

 ies, for instead of easily producing* efflorescences and spores, as in worms 

 infested with muscardine, the worms mummified hy Lsaria densa remain 

 in the sclerotic condition until they are iilaced in a moist chamber. 



The author has indicated how, with licpiid cultures properly diluted 

 or with a mixture of spores and dried earth, the grub can be readily 

 reached and infested at the moment when it rises to the surface of the 

 ground. He considers this method of utilizing the fungus much more 

 practical than those suggested by MM. Prillieux and Delacroix, and 

 less complicated that those suggested for the use of other cryptogamic 

 diseases by MM. Brefeld, Cienkowsky, Metschnikoff, and others. He 

 has great confidence in the employment of this fungus to reduce the 

 damage caused by the White Grub to the minimnm, and believes that 

 agriculturists will be able to arrive at this important result without 

 great expense. He claims the priority for this suggestion, and he ac- 

 cepts the responsibility of all that he has said both in this paper and in a 

 former one relative to the destruction of the White Grub by lsaria, but 

 he reserves his opinion upon the possible employment of this fungus 

 against other injurious insects, and particularly against those which 

 live in the open air or in dry i^laces. 



We have already mentioned in these pages (Vol. iv, p. 152) the fact 

 that a French firm has commercially adopted the use of this cryptogam, 

 and it will be noticed by eomparison that the method recommended 

 differs from the one suggested by M. Giard. 



Some discredit is cast upon the practical utility of this method by 



