A BACTERIAL ENEMY. 51 
vate and reduce the older larvae and pupae, as well as many recently 
developed adults among them? Is there nothing that, not of itself 
fatal, so acts upon the system of the bugs that they are brought into 
a condition of susceptibility — a sort of "go-between," so to speak, bat 
which demands atmospheric moisture before it will rise to an aggressive 
state ? 
A BACTERIAL ENEMY OF THE CHINCH BUG. 
Forbes finds that the bacterium, Bacillus insectorum Burrill, is normal 
to the chinch bug and occurs always in the intestinal coeca, and I have 
often wondered if this were not the very reducing element. In a 
paper contributed to the "American Practitioner,'- September, 1801, he 
describes the effect of this bacteria on the coeca as completely destroy- 
ing the secreting epithelium, the cells of which break down and disap- 
pear, leaving the delicate tubes filled with a vast mass of microbes with 
some small intermixture of droplets of fat and a little nondescript 
debris, the result of cellular decomposition. Xow it certainly seems to 
me that we may here have the very enervating element necessary and 
which, in order to become sufficiently aggressive to perform its func 
tions perfectly, requires the very conditions afforded by frequent show- 
ers, without which it is comparatively helpless. We know very well 
that human beings are far more susceptible to disease when weakened 
by fatigue, dissipation, or other forms of exhaustion, and under such 
conditions succumb to disease when they would otherwise enjoy immu- 
nity therefrom. I will not, however, follow this farther, but submit it 
as a problem well worthy of careful consideration and study. In my 
own experiments with Sporotrichium globuliferum I have found that 
under the most favorable conditions the fungus will attack even the 
youngest larva», while Forbes states that it will also attack the eggs, 
but in the fields 1 believe it is generally most prevalent among the 
more advanced larvae, pupa 1 , and newly developed adults, though much 
depends upon meteorological conditions and the abundance of chinch 
bags, as well as the time during the breeding season when the fungus 
is doing its work. That is to say, there is a time at the beginning of 
the breeding season when there are only adults and young larva': later 
there will be larva* of various ages, and, toward the last, tew if any 
of these, but all will be either pupae or adults. 1 have for some reason 
found it more difficult to get the Sporotrichium to work satisfactorily 
when the chinch bugs were beginning to breed than later vi\, the last 
of June and the early part of duly. These tacts are mentioned here 
to show that judging by their effects these fungi hold a secondary 
place. 
INK PRACTICAL l ri 111 V i>l- FUNGOUS AND BACTERIAL ENEMIES IN FIGHTING I1IK 
CHINCH BUG. 
Regarding the practicability of utilizing these entomogenous fungi. 
in agriculture, 1 see no reason to revise my statement made ten years 
