113 



Notes on the Chinch Bug in Minnesota. 



I have just returned from a rather extensive trip through our southern counties, 

 chiefly to study the Chinch Bugs. There will be but little trouble in 1889, as a very 

 large percentage of these insects has been killed by a fungus {Entomophiliora), The 

 same disease appeared early in August upon our experimental plots. It started from 

 some holes dug along a low board fence made for the purpose of collecting and killing 

 the bugs ; thence it spread to fields with oats and wheat. These fields had a very 

 dense growth of young red clover growing upon them as Avell, which shaded the 

 ground thoroughly and kept it moist. In a week the disease had spread over the 

 whole farm, and would have killed all the Chinch Bugs if the prevailing moist con- 

 ditions had continued for some time. But it became very hot and dry, and in the 

 course of a few days the disease came to a sudden halt, excepting in very low or well- 

 shaded fields. As soon as the disease appeared I collected large numbers of the dis- 

 eased insects, and mailed them to various parts of the State infested by Chinch Bugs. 

 My last trip was made to investigate the effects of this experiment. I found the 

 Chinch Bugs nearly exterminated wherever the disease has artificially been introduced. 

 But the disease has also been at work quite a distance from these centers of introduc- 

 tion, and consequently I am in doubt whether I re-introduced the disease or not. This 

 "but" is quite a bore, and it is now impossible to fathom the truth. If possible I 

 shall keep on experimenting with the various fungi destroying insects, and think of 

 starting, next year, a "cholera farm" in this locality, providing the health commis- 

 sioners allow it. — [Otto Lugger, University of Miunesota, September 10, 1888. 



Epidemic diseases of the Chinch Bug in Illinois. 



We are in the thick of work — botanical, entomological, and experimental — on the 

 two chinch-bug diseases which I reported in 1882, both of which are now wide-spread 

 and destructive in southern Illinois. The Entomophthora (12th report, page 53) 

 sprinkles the ground so thickly in some fields with the dead bugs that it makes one 

 think of a flurry of snow ; and the bacterial affection seems to be even more destruc- 

 tive, although less conspicuously so. If it comes in the way of any of your people 

 to send me some living bugs from a region where their numbers are not evidently 

 diminishing, I would be glad to have them for experimental use. — [S. A. Forbes, 

 Champaign, Ills. 



STEPS TOWARDS A REVISION OF CHAMBERS'S INDEX, WITH NOTES 

 AND DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 



By Lord Walsingham. 



1 Continued from page 84. j 



BUTALIS. 



By the addition of the four new species now described, the representatives of this 

 genus known in the United States and Canada are raised to the number 13: these 

 include the unicolorous, mottled, and streaked torms known in Europe, but at pres- 

 ent no species allied to the spotted B. Jiabellahed. has been met with. The only two 

 American species with which I am personally unacquainted are the pale "white" or 

 " whitish" B. planipenndla Chamb. and B. albipcnnella Chamb. 



Butalis impoaitella Z. 



= Gelechia monsfrateUa Wlk. 

 ^=Butalis matutella Clem. 



This synonymy is verified by reference to Zeller's type. Walker's type, and Clemens' 

 type. 



