Sires 
cially, may devour white grubs occasionally, as has indeed been sug- 
gested by Riley (Sixth Ent. Rep. Mo.), but I have no record of precise 
observations to that effect. The fact that the beetles may sometimes 
fall a prey to carnivorous insects, is shown by two specimens brought 
to my office by a student of the University, May 21, 1891. One of these 
was an example of L. hirticula, which he had found with the tip of its 
abdomen torn open, crawling up a stem of grass. The other was a 
Chlenius tomentosus, found clinging to the Lachnosterna and feeding 
upon its viscera partly drawn out of the wound. The frequency with 
which mites are found clustered upon white grubs in their earthen 
cells,* especially upon those recently dead or in a weakened condition, 
has given rise to the supposition, hitherto not experimentally verified, 
that these mites may be parasitic on the grubs. 
On the whole, the general tenor of our own observations, as well as 
those published by other entomologists, must lead us to attach compar- 
atively little economic importance to the insect enemies of white grubs, 
whether predaceous or parasitic. 
Reptiles and Amphibians—The fact that the toad occasionally eats 
June beetles has been reported (Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, Vol. L., p. 
69,) and could no doubt be verified extensively by dissections of toads 
made at times when the June beetle is abroad. Frogs must likewise be 
placed on the list of the natural enemies of these beetles.t Prof. Per- 
kins, of the University of Vermont, has found as many as ten in the 
stomach of a single frog of medium size.{ It is altogether likely that 
insectivorous reptiles, serpents especially, would be found to destroy a 
still greater number of these insects, but no studies have been made, to 
my knowledge, on this point. 
Fungi—But one contagious disease of the American white grub 
oceurring in nature has been positively and definitely connected with a 
fungus parasite. This parasite (Cordyceps melolontha) has been several 
times referred to in economic literature, first in the “American Journal 
of Science and Arts” (August, 1824). It was treated at length in an 
illustrated article published by Riley in the “American Entomologist” 
for June, 1880. According to a correspondent of Walsh’s in 1869, it has 
sometimes been very common in Virginia:$ and Mrs. Treat reported 
the occurrence of thousands of infested specimens in Benton county, 
Iowa, in 1865.** Perkins mentions it as infesting grubs of Lachno- 
sterna in Vermont.t+ This species is, so far as known, incapable of arti- 
ficial cultivation, and could consequently be used for insecticide purposes 
only by distributing as carriers of infection white grubs which had been 
in contact with others infested with it. Indications have not been want- 
ing of the occurrence of a bacterial disease native to our Lachnosterna 
larve, but no precise studies have been made sufficient to. warrant the 
assertion that such bacterial diseases really occur. The common insect 
parasite, Sporotrichum globuliferum, the so-called white fungus of the 
* Fifth Ann. Rep. Vt. Agr. Exper. Station. (1891), p. 147; Rep. U. S. Dept. 
INST SO ee ep. LOO. 
+ “Insect Life,” Vol II., p. 195, and Trans. Wis. State Agr. Soc., Vol. XIX. 
(1881), p. 297. 
~ Fifth Ann. Rep. Vt. Agr. Exper. Station (1891), p. 153. 
SieAmis bint WOls dire te ule 
©*’Am. Emt., Vol. IL; pi 53. 
+} Fifth Ann. Rep. Vt. Agr. Station (1891), p. 148. 
