Champaign, September 6, in corn fields, feeding upon roots of 
Cyperus strigosus and Scirpus flu viatilis, two coarse sedges com¬ 
mon in moist low lands. The roots of these plants presented 
the same appearance of injury as infested corn roots. 
The beetles continued throughout the season, but several at¬ 
tempts to secure their eggs were unsuccessful. One pair, how¬ 
ever, were found in copula August 8. Besides the feeding habit 
already mentioned, they were seen, both in the field and labora¬ 
tory, eating holes in corn leaves, and also eating into pumpkins, 
sometimes to the depth of half an inch. They had been pre¬ 
viously found feeding upon wildHelianthus late in May, badly rid¬ 
dling the leaves; and were subsequently reported by an assistant 
to be feeding on the leaf of the common cultivated sunflower. 
In collecting larvae at Jacksonville July 19, dead examples 
were several times observed all of a dark red color; and among 
the specimens brought to the office several which died changed 
afterwards to this dull red hue. Further observations of this 
disease showed that larvae when first attacked lost the cha.rac- 
teristic yellowish tinge, becoming gray and somewhat swollen, 
and that after death they changed through pinkish to dark red, 
the internal organs breaking up to a fluid pulp, held however 
for a considerable time in the tough cuticle of the dead larva. 
The fluids of these specimens had a milky look in the pale 
worms, and a reddish tint in the others, and contained a prac¬ 
tically pure culture of a single species of Bacillus, at first slen¬ 
der and symmetrical, later broad, rounded at the ends, and ir¬ 
regularly vacuolate,—much more distinctly so in the reddened 
worms than in those recently dead. This disease destroyed 
within three days about three fourths of the larva* brought from 
the fields. 
Several successful cultures in solid and fluid media gave 
ample material for the study of this Bacillus. It is a flagel¬ 
late form, grows freely on agar with the usual beef broth nutri¬ 
ent mixture and forms at first a thin pellicle upon the surface, 
or, if a scratch be made with the infecting needle, develops 
freely within it, not penetrating deeply, however, into the gela¬ 
tine As the growth increases the film thickens, rising a little 
above the surface of the gelatine, and along the scratch it may 
form a noticeable ridge; but no liquefaction of the agar occurs. 
In about three days, at ordinary summer temperature, the sur¬ 
face portion of the growth gets a slightly dingy look, an in¬ 
definite brownish white color, with numerous minute spherical 
specks of deep orange scattered through it. At the same time 
a conspicuous diffusion of orange-red through the gelatine oc¬ 
curs, reaching far beyond the limits of the colony. The tinge 
of this excreted color deepens rapidly, becoming in four or five 
elavs a clear blood-red, the orange granules of the bacterial 
growth itself having in the meantime become larger and more 
numerous, both in the deeper parts of the streak and in the ex¬ 
panded surface growth. In about a week the bacilli begin to 
