45 
tours after burial all were still alive, no difference appearing be¬ 
tween the two lots. Heavy rains, about twenty-five hours long in 
all, had occurred during the interval. 
September 3, a similar experiment was made with both old and 
young, two lots of chinch bugs being buried five and six inches 
deep, respectively, with grass in an earthern pot, the earth being 
firmly pressed down over them. Ten days later, both young and 
old were still alive. 
September 5, three lots were buried in pots with grass, one 
three inches deep, one five inches, and the third six. Five days 
later those of the first lot had not yet crawled out of the earth, 
but were still alive. In the second lot many had come to the 
surface, but in the third, six inches deep, none had crawled out, 
though all were living. The earth was packed over all these lots 
to imitate rolling in the field. The late period at which these 
experiments were made and the consequent possible preparation of 
the bugs for their hibernating fast, may have had something to 
do with the failure of this method of starvation.* 
CONTAGIOUS DISEASE. 
In my first entomological reportf an account was given of a newly 
detected disease of the chinch bug characterize!} by the presence 
of bacteria in great numbers in the alimentary canal, my obser¬ 
vations on which were made almost wholly at Normal, in McLean 
county, and at Champaign.J In the same report I referred to 
chinch bugs found dead in fields of corn at Jacksonville, Sep¬ 
tember, 1882, imbedded in a white fungus which proved, on ex¬ 
amination by Prof. BurrilL, to be an Entomophthora (Empusab 
Other bugs similarly situated were found at Normal, some of 
which seemed to have died from other causes, the fungi imbed¬ 
ding them having the characters of a common mold; but a slide 
made from one of these insects, still in my possession, contains a 
quantity of unmistakable Entomophthora.** 
During the still existing chinch-bug outbreak, we have closely 
watched for the appearance of these diseases, bugs having been 
crushed occasionally for study of their fluids, and all dead speci¬ 
mens found being brought to the office and examined with refer¬ 
ence to the presence of parasitic fungi in their bodies. 
*An observation reported by Mr. E. M. Shelton, Director of the Kansas Agricultural Experi- 
; ment Station, in their Bulletin 4, throws light upon the effect of burial by plowing. Chinch bugs 
I plowed under with young wheat to a depth of eight inches May 9 and 10,—the ground being after¬ 
ward harrowed and repeatedly rolled,—nevertheless emerged in enormous numbers, (some having 
apparently hatched in the earth,) escaped from the plots, and attacked adjacent crops. 
tTwelfth Report of the State Entomologist of Illinois (1882) pp. 47—51. 
JThis chinch-bug microbe was found in bugs collected in Central Illinois in May of the follow¬ 
ing year (1883), and may have had its share in a still further reduction of the numbers of chinch 
bugs in that region, apparent each year until 1887. 
**In an article on “The Chinch Bug and the Season,” published in the “Prairie Farmer” of Chi¬ 
cago, for November 25, 1882, Prof. E. A. Popenoe, of the Kansas Agricultural College, says that 
farmers of Southeastern Kansas had recently reported to him the death of all the chinch bugs in 
their corn,—the dead bugs being collected about the foot of the stalks, and each covered with a 
.•strong growth of white mold. 
