128 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Jun 
The Chinch-bug Fungus. 
H. Gama: | 
In the Middle States, the chinch-bug is attacked by 
several parasitic fungi, which appear to be very gener- 
ally scattered ready to destroy the bug when the weath- 
er conditions are proper for their growth. They are in 
Kentucky, in [llinois, in Kansas, and in other states of the 
Ohio and Mississippi valleys. They are dependent on 
moisture, and when raius come they get their opportu- 
nity. Butin New York where the chinch-bug is com- 
monly very rare, these parasites, we may suppose, were 
not common in cultivated fields, and hence the bugs, once 
started, had, for a time, everything their own way. 
Two of these plant-parasites are known to be particu- 
larly effective in destroying chinch-bugs. They are fungi, 
somewhat more highly organized than the microbes so 
often mentioned as causing epidemic diseases, but seem 
to act in much the same way, getting into the bodies of 
insects through the breathing pores, and by their growth 
in the interior, destroying the life of the attacked bugs, 
and then pushing through to the outside, where the fruit 
or spores are developed. The small growing threads are 
too small to be discerned with the unaided eye, and hence 
the only way to get a knowledge of the structure and 
manner of fruiting is by the use of the compound micro- 
scope. The presence of these fungi is to be known by 
the white or gray powdery coats formed on the backs, 
and oftencompletely covering the dead bugs. The most 
common and active species has received the name 
“Chinch-bug Fungus.” It is pure white as commonly 
seen on the bodies of insects, but when old, becomes of a 
light cream-yellow color. When it is grown in large 
masses, this change is especially marked. 
The second fungus is nut so common as the other, and 
has not, as far as I know, been grown artificially for dis- 
