aff."ct:J by it. The fungus develops itself in the abdomen of the 

 insect, and consists almost wholly of a mass of pale-yellowish or 

 clay-colored spores, which to the naked eye has the appearance 

 of a lump of clay. The insects attacked by it become sluggish 

 and averse to flight, so that they can easily be taken by hand. 

 After a time some of the posterior rings of the abdomen fall 

 away, revealing the fungus within. Strange as it may seem, the 

 insect may, and sometimes does, live for a time even in this con- 

 dition. Though it is not killed at once, it is manifestly incapaci- 

 tated for propagation, and, therefore, the fungus may be regarded 

 as a beneficial one. In Columbia county the disease prevailed to 

 a considerable extent. Along the line of the railroad, between 

 Catskill and Livingston stations, many dead Cicadas were found, 

 not a few of which were filled by the fungoid mass." 



Mr. Peck again, in the same report, says, that " While in the 

 Adirondack region, numerous clumps of alders were noticed that 

 had their leaves nearly skeletonized by the larvae of some un- 

 known infect. The larvae were nearly black in color and scarcely 

 half an inch long. They were seen in countless numbers feeding 

 upon the leaves and threatening by their numbers, even if but 

 half of them should come to maturity, in another year to com- 

 pletely defoliate. the alders of that region. Upon looking under 

 the affected bushes for the pupse of the insect, in order, if possi- 

 ble, to have the means of obtaining the species, what was my 

 astonishment to find the ground thickly flecked with little white 

 floccose masses of mold, and that each one of these tufts of mold 

 was the downy fungoid shroud of a dead larva from the alders. 

 Not a single living pupa could be found, but there were hundreds 

 of dead and moldy larvae, killed without doubt by the fungus, 

 which is nature's antidote to an over production of the insect and 

 nature's agency for protecting the alders from utter destruction." 



The " pebrine," a disease which appeared in South France 

 nearly thirty years ago and attacked the silk-worms with much 

 virulence, is also a case in point. A popular account is given of 

 this epizootic in Huxley's Lay Sermons.^ 



This disease appeared in the rearing houses in great violence in 

 1854, although it had been occasionally seen previous to that 

 date. The name " pebrine " was given to it because of the dark 

 spots which appeared on the bodies of the infested larvae. 



1 Lay Sermons, pp. 373-375- 



