110 
The weather at the time was damp, cloudy, and warm. Mr. Hollen¬ 
beck reports that about a week afterwards he saw many moldy bugs 
in the field, other than those put out, and was convinced that these 
bugs w 7 ere killed by the fungous disease. 
May 24, this wheat was examined by Mr. Marten, who reported 
the chincli-bugs very abundant in the wheat, copulating and de¬ 
positing eggs. Search for the greater part of a day on this farm 
and one adjacent, yielded only two fungus-covered chinch-bugs. 
On another visit, made June 5, the fungus disease was found 
generally distributed in this and adjoining fields, as it was at 
that time throughout this part of the State at large; but June 20, 
after an interval of drought, no trace of it could be found by Mr. 
Marten in these same fields. The young bugs at this time were 
plentiful, a few having reached the pupa stage. 
No. 54. A contagion experiment, the first of a long series (see 
Outline, p. 102) derived from a small lot of chinch-bugs, dead 
with Sporotrichum globulijerum , received from Dr. Snow about 
May 15. May 25 a lot of chinch-bugs from the vicinity of Tonti 
and Odin, in Marion county, collected by Mr. Marten, together 
with others received from fourteen farmers of that vicinity, were 
placed in a wooden box which had been thoroughly wet inside 
and out, and the bottom of which was covered with a layer of 
green wheat for food. With these bugs the material obtained 
from Dr. Snow was placed. The box so prepared was tightly 
closed and kept on damp sand upon the ground in the insectary. 
It was opened for examination about every other day and supplied 
with fresh food. May 26 more bugs were added, but no dead in¬ 
sects were observed. May 28 another lot from Southern Illinois 
was introduced, and still another on the 29th. No dead were seen 
at this time, and there w T ere no traces of muscardine infection. 
On the 30th a few bugs w r ere dead in the box, two of them well 
covered with another chinch-bug fungus, Entomphthora aphiclis , 
but no fresh Sporotrichum was seen. 
More live insects were introduced May 31 and June 1, at which 
latter date the dead bugs were a little more numerous. June 4, 
the box had warped and split, and more than half the bugs es¬ 
caped; otherwise the experiment was in good condition. The 
white muscardine had now taken effect, and a sufficient number 
of fungus-covered chincli-bugs were taken out to supply the four¬ 
teen farmers near Tonti and Odin, from whom the material was 
received May 25, together with four farmers at Farina, in 
Fayette county. Among these last were G. C. W ells and James 
Smith, whose farms were frequently visited by us later (see 
Nos. 55 to 60). The lot sent to Tonti and Odin was delivered 
June 5, and that to Mr. Wells and Mr. Smith June 7, a part of 
this latter material being used by Mr. Marten for the field experi¬ 
ment on the Wells farm, reported at length under No. 55 
June 9 all the material was taken from the above box and 
placed in a second, similar one. June 11 this second box was 
overhauled and a sufficient number of fungus-covered bugs was 
removed to make up twenty packages, two lots of living bugs 
being at the same time added. June 12 and 13 more live bugs 
were added, and a few dead ones were taken out. June 14 the 
