46 • THE CHINCH BUG. 
It was not until l s 7'.> thai an entomologist came t<> the rescue of 
Doctor Shimer's theory of disease among chinch bugs. Dr. Cyrus 
Thomas, in Bulletin No. 5 of the United State- Entomological Com- 
mission, L879, page 24, stated that while Doctor Shimer's plague 
among chinch bugs was somewhat extraordinary, vet it was in accord- 
ance with fact- that he had himself ascertained in reference to other 
insects, and in proof he cited a similar whole-ale destruction of flic- in 
southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee in the year 1849. and 
also a similar epidemic among grasshoppers in western Minnesota, 
Dakota, and northern Iowa in 1872. This position of Doctor Thomas 
in support of Doctor Shinier may he regarded as a second step in our 
advance in a knowledge of the influence of meteorological condition- 
on the chinch bug. It paved the way for further research in this 
direction. 
II NGOl - ENEMIES 0] I 111 CHINCH BUG DETERMINED. 
While the -ubject of epidemic and contagious diseases of insects 
was discussed to a greater or less extent among scientific men. there 
was a decided lack of actual experimentation, and none at all with 
i he fungous parasites of the chinch bug until 1882 and 1883. when 
Prof. S. A. Forbes began what ultimately proved to be a long series 
of studies of the chinch bug and its natural enemies. At thi- time. 
1882. Professor Forbes was more especially interested in the bacterial 
diseases of the chinch bug, and though he found, at Jacksonville, 111.. 
many specimens of dead chinch bugs embedded in a dense mat of 
white fungous thread-, which sometimes almost hid the body and 
reminded him of the fatal disease previously reported by Doctor 
Shinier, yet except to secure from Prof. T. J. Burrill a determination 
of this fungus as belonging to the Entomophthora no progress was 
made in the study of this particular phase of the chinch-bug problem." 
In July. 1887. Professor Forbes found attacking the chinch bug in 
Clinton County. 111., a second fungus, which he determined as be- 
longing to the genus Botrytis, but this conclusion has since been 
revised and the species i- now known a> Sporotrichum globuliferum 
Speg. This discovery of a second species of entomogenous fungi and 
its separation from the Entomophthora comprises what may be justly 
termed a third step in the advancement of our knowledge of this prob- 
lem. Professor Forbes, however, seems to have still been too deeply 
interested in his bacterial studies to pay any special attention to the 
other phases of hi- problem, further than to record the occurrence of 
his new Botrytis in various Localities in Illinois, and in one instance 
on a beetle. Parandra brunnea (observed by Mr. John Marten, at 
Champaign), and. similarly, to note the occurrence of the still spe- 
cifically undetermined Entomophthora. 6 
ii'ili Reporl of the State Entomologist of Illinois, pp. 47-51, 1882. 
& Sixteenth Report of the State Entomologist of Illinois, pp. -tu— to. 1888. 
