41. 
118 
Botrytis tenella. In the check lot, in the mean time, three larvee had 
died; one on the 14th and two on the 18th of April—all of them, how- 
ever, without any appearance of fungous affection. 
A single experiment was begun May 9, 1892, intended to test the 
possibility “of the transfer of the dises ise characterized by the fungus 
Botrylis tenella trom one white grub to another in the earth. For this 
purpose thirty Lachnosterna larvee were placed in a breeding cage and 
covered with earth, and with these were buried separately five dead 
grubs covered with a dense growth of the spore-bearing mycelium of 
Botrytis from one of the experiments just described. Wheat was sown 
in the cage to furnish natural conditions and to afford food, and a 
check lot was established, similarly provided for. Seven days there- 
after no effect was visible, and one grub was dead in the check. At the 
end of a fortnight two larve had died in the experimental lot, but with 
no appearance of a fungus mycelium. One month later (June 23) 
sixteen living larvae were found in this cage, one had died from hy- 
menopterous “parasitism, and the eleven remaining were dead, but with 
no appearance of a fungus growth. Matters remained in substantially 
this condition until July 5, when one additional dead larva was found, 
together with two living pupe. August 26, when the experiment was 
abandoned, the cage contained eleven adult June beetles (Lachnosterna), 
one remaining pupa, and a second larva killed by a hymenopter- 
ous parasite (Pelecinus polyturator). The dead white grubs whose re- 
mains were detected in the earth showed no trace of fungous infection, . 
and the check cage was reported, by the assistant who performed the 
experiment, in practically ae co 
From the foregoing it appears that no clearly distinguishable ef- 
fect was produced by this aitempe Ai artificial infection. 
Similar experiments with this same fungus species were made in 
1892 by Prof. Herbert Osborn, of Ames, tore and by Mr. F. W. 
Mally, at Washington, both under direction of Dr. Riley, Entomologist 
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.* 
By Prof. Osborn, forty-three Lachnosterna larvee were used in two 
experiments and a number not given in a third, with the effect to con- 
vey the fungus only to a single grub; and here, as no culture experi- 
ments are given, it seems possible that some other fungus may have ap- 
peared. 
In Mr. Mally’s experiment nine grubs were used in two experi- 
ments, and eighty-eight others were kept as checks. Here also the 
treatment was without result. 
The material used by Osborn and Mally was apparently derived 
from a commercial source (Fribourg & Hesse, 26 rue des Keoles, Paris), 
and may have been in a condition inferior to that from Prof. Giard, 
with which my own experiments were made. 
May 25, 1892, a third experiment was begun with this fungus. 
Fifty grubs, chiefly Cyclocephala, with a few Lachnosternas, were thor- 
oughly dusted with spores of Botrytis tenella and placed in a cage with 
blue-grass sod, a check lot being established at the same time. June 
29, this cage was overhauled, and ten live erubs, three dead ones, two 
pupe and eleven adult Cyclocephalas were found. One of the dead lar- 
* Rep. U. S. Dept. Agr., 1892, p. 163. 
