47 



crushed carefully in place, I found the fluid swarming with im- 

 mense numbers of bacilli, saw others rapidly escaping in streams 

 from the torn tubes or dancing about within them, and found the 

 nuclei of the epithelial cells seemingly closely packed with the 

 same bacteria. Curiously, on carefully isolating and crushing on 

 still another slide, the anterior part of the alimentary canal — that 

 preceding the coeca — I could not find a single microbe. The pos- 

 terior part contained, however, a moderate number, demonstrated 

 in the same manner. Another specimen, studied by the same 

 methods, contained xast numbers of the characteristic bacillus in, 

 the coeca, but none that I could clearly recognize in the other 

 parts of the alimentary canal. They were wanting in the Mal- 

 pighian tubules. 



Examples collected September 19, in corn fields at Albion, in 

 Edwards county, contained sometimes more and sometimes fewer 

 of these bacteria, and occasionally none; others from Ashley, ob- 

 tained at the same time, were moderately infested; and examples 

 from Edgewood, received September 22, contained them, if at all, 

 in numbers so small that I could not satisfy myself of their pres- 

 ence. Specimens from Mascoutah, sent September 22, contained a 

 variable number, vast quantities occurring in some and relatively 

 few in others. Their apparently greater number in pupse than in 

 imagos was possibly due to the greater ease and thoroughness with 

 which the relatively soft bodies of the former could be crushed on 

 the slide. 



Bugs received from Bond county, October 3, were similarly ex- 

 amined, and found in similar condition. Of three pupae crushed, 

 the first contained an extraordinary number, the second a scarcely 

 inferior abundance, and. the third only a moderate quantity. Cul- 

 tures made from the first of the above were completely successful,, 

 and gave conclusive evidence as to the character and life history 

 of this bacillus. 



On the other hand, and finally, three adults collected at Gol- 

 conda, on the Ohio River, October 4, contained no bacteria that I 

 could recognize. If present at all, the number was certainly very 

 small. 



From the foregoing it is apparent that this bacilus was un- 

 equally but abundantly distributed throughout the region where 

 the chinch bug had reached its culminating point last year; but, 

 on the other hand, its absence in specimens from Pope county, 

 where the insect was more destructive this year than last, is of 

 special interest and significance. 



The numerous bacterial cultures made from these insects, com- 

 pletely successful in both fluid and solid media, may best be re- 

 ported elsewhere. It is sufficient to say that they showed this 

 chinch-bug microbe to be a bacillus, flagellate in fluid cultures 

 and when grown on the surface of solid media, varying greatly in 

 size and form according to place and stage of development, tend- 



I 



