26 
V 
our attempts at the artificial introduction of white muscardine 
in Illinois, a sufficient number of fungus-covered specimens were 
found from time to time in widely separated places, to show the 
presence of that disease in here and there a locality. Sporotri¬ 
chum globuliferum seems, in fact, very commonly, if sparingly, 
present among insects in this latitude in a condition to give local 
origin to this fungous attack whenever favoring circumstances super¬ 
vene. 
June 6, 1891, half a dozen dead chinch-bugs covered with Sporo- 
trichum in a fruiting condition were found lying upon the sur¬ 
face of the ground in a wheat field near Litchfield, Montgomery 
county; and in a lot of specimens obtained June 2 from this same 
field and kept in a breeding cage at my insectary, many bugs 
showed the presence of this fungus upon their dead bodies only 
three days thereafter. 
May 23, 1892, among several hundred chinch-bugs received from 
near Highland, in Madison county, two were noticed densely 
covered with Sporotrichum; and Juiy 20 of the same year many 
young bugs were found dead aad dying under a dense growth of 
grass in a field of rye near Forreston, in Ogle county, in north¬ 
ern Illinois, their bodies being thickly covered with this fungus. 
This was apparently a local occurrence, as nothing of the kind 
could be found in adjoining fields; but this little outbreak con¬ 
tinued at least for nearly a month. On a later visit, August 13, 
fungus-covered bugs were abundant in a narrow strip of grass 
separating this field of rye from corn, although none could be 
detected in the corn itself. The latter was sw'arming with seem¬ 
ingly healthy bugs, which could only have entered the field by 
passing through the three-foot belt of grass in which thousands of 
dead bugs remained. On this last date adult chinch-bugs covered 
with Sporotrichum were detected in considerable numbers in a field 
of barley in this same neighborhood, mostly among dense weeds 
and grass; and on still another farm a smaller number occurred 
in corn. In fact, this fungous disease seemed at this time suffi¬ 
ciently prevalent here to promise considerable relief from chinch- 
bug injury the following year. (See Eighteenth Report State En¬ 
tomologist of Illinois, page X.) 
August 8, 1893, two dead chinch-bugs imbedded in this same 
fungus growth were picked up in a field near Shattuc, Clinton 
county; and another similarly imbedded in a fruiting growth was 
found the following October in corn at Tamaroa, in Perry county. 
The occurrence of this same Sporotrichum was noted also during 
these same years on other insects: April 4, 1892, on cocoons of 
Halcsulota caryce found under logs and other rubbish on the 
ground; May, 1892, on a plant bug, Euschistus variolarius, in a 
Washington county wheat field; November 5, on a caterpillar, 
(Nodata gibbosa) shaken from an oak tree near the University; 
and November 8, on tw r o dead beetles ( Evarthrus colossus and 
Xylopinus saperdoides) collected near Urbana, in Champaign county, 
under a fallen tree. 
