Entomology. 63 
As was to be expected, no dead beetles were found in the traps 
that were not poisoned ; nor did the beetles die soon in those cages 
supplied with unpoisoned food. But where the clover or dough was 
poisoned the beetles in most cases were destroyed, proving that 
they feed upon these substances, and suggesting a practical method 
of combating them. 
Although these experiments were conducted in a field from 
which a large number of the beetles had been removed, twelve 
examinations of the traps baited as described above yielded an aver- 
age of 23 J dead beetles per trap. In some cases twice that number 
were found at one time in a single trap. 
When we take into consideration the small amount of labor in- 
volved in distributing poisoned baits as described, and in renewing 
them once or twice per week during the early part of the summer, 
and consider also the large number of beetles that can be destroyed, 
many of them doubtless before they have laid their eggs, we feel 
warranted in earnestly recommending that these important pests be 
fought in this way.—/. H. Comstoch. 
Note on Chinch Bug Diseases.— Two diseases of Blissus leiicop- 
terus, apparently efficient in suppressing an outbreak of this species 
HI 1882, were described by me in my report for that year as State 
Entomologist of Illinois (pp. 47-54) ; but neither of these has been 
distinctly recognized since, until the present season. Xow, how- 
ever, the chinch bugs of the southern part of Illinois are being very 
rapidly destroyed by both these diseases, and a third not hitherto 
recognized— the last (seen by me first in July, 1887) due to a Botry- 
tis distinct from the species {B. bassiana) well known as the char- 
acteristic fungus of muscardine in the silkworm. 
One of the two first mentioned is caused by an Entomophthora 
whose specific affinities I have not been able to learn. 
The other is due to a microbe (the Micrococcus insectorum of 
Burrill i) principally developed in the alimentary canal, and es- 
pecially in its caecal appendages, which are often literally crammed 
with it from end to end. This disease somewhat resembles that 
known as schlaffsucht or faclierie in the literature of the silkworm. 
Its germ is freely cultivable both in beef broth and in solid gela- 
tine media, by the processes usual in bacterial investigation. 
_ Both the Entomophthora and the Botrytis finally imbed the insect 
^^u "^^^^^ fungus— the efflorescence of a spore-bearing mycelium. 
Ihe Bo'rytis has been much more abundant and destructive in 
Illinois than the Entomophthora, although seemingly less so at pres- 
ent than the bacterial form. 
It now seems likely that these diseases, occurring as they do 
r. '^"P®''^^^'^ Naturalist, xvii., p. 319. This microbe, studied anew 'by 
u? .^^^"ill f fom my recent cultures, solid and fluid, and from the affected 
c'^ijich bugs themselves, proves to be a Bacillus of peculiar character, and 
not a Micrococcus, 
