47 
crushed carefully in place, I found the fluid swarming with im¬ 
mense numbers of bacilli, saw others rapidly escaping in streams 
from the torn tubes or dancing about within them, and found the 
nuclei of the epithelial cells seemingly closely packed with the 
same bacteria. Curiously, on carefully isolating and crushing on 
still another slide, the anterior part of the alimentary canal—that 
preceding the cceca-I could not find a single microbe. The pos¬ 
terior part contained, however, a moderate number, demonstrated 
in the same manner. Another specimen, studied by the same 
methods, contained vast numbers of the characteristic bacillus in 
the coeca, but none that I could clearly recognize in the other 
parts of the alimentary canal. They were wanting in the Mal¬ 
pighian tubules. 
Examples collected September 19, in corn fields at Albion, in 
Edwards county, contained sometimes more and sometimes fewer 
of these bacteria, and occasionally none; others from Ashley, ob¬ 
tained at the same time, were moderately infested; and examples 
from Edgewood, received September 22, contained them, if at all, 
in numbers so small that I could not satisfy myself of their pres¬ 
ence. Specimens from Mascoutah, sent September 22, contained a 
variable number, vast quantities occurring in some and relatively 
few in others. Their apparently greater number in pupae than in 
imagos was possibly due to the greater ease and thoroughness with 
which the relatively soft bodies of the former could be crushed on 
the slide. 
Bugs received from Bond county, October 3, were similarly ex¬ 
amined, and found in similar condition. Of three pupae crushed, 
the first contained an extraordinary number, the second a scarcely 
inferior abundance, and the third only a moderate quantity. Cul¬ 
tures made from the first of the above were completely successful,, 
and gave conclusive evidence as to the character and life history 
of this bacillus. 
On the other hand, and finally, three adults collected at Gol- 
conda, on the Ohio Biver, October 4, contained no bacteria that I 
could recognize. If present at all, the number was certainly very 
small. 
From the foregoing it is apparent that this bacilus was un¬ 
equally but abundantly distributed throughout the region where 
the chinch bug had reached its culminating point last year; but, 
on the other hand, its absence in specimens from Pope county, 
where the insect was more destructive this year than last, is of 
special interest and significance. 
The numerous bacterial cultures made from these insects, com¬ 
pletely successful in both fluid and solid media, may best be re¬ 
ported elsewhere. It is sufficient to say that they showed this 
chinch-bug microbe to be a bacillus, flagellate in fluid cultures 
and when grown on the surface of solid media, varying greatly in 
size and form according to place and stage of development, tend- 
