75 
lumber of these Micrococci roughly corresponding to the evident 
irevalence and intensity of fatal disease; and fourth, the death 
>y disease, with an abundance of the above Micrococcus in the 
ilimentary canal, of chinch bugs previously confined as an ex- 
leriment with selected lots known to be perishing in like man- 
ler, checks composed of specimens not so exposed remaining, in 
he meantime, unaffected. 
That the fungus here called a Sporotrichum (S. globuliferum, 
ppegazzini, according to Peck) is likewise a cause of spontaneous 
lisease among chinch bugs is inferred from the vast abundance 
>f this species on chinch bugs in the field very recently dead, 
vhere they were perishing rapidly and in enormous numbers; 
ihe suddenness with which it bursts out of the body after death 
n the form of a spore-bearing growth (scarcely to be accounted 
or except on the supposition that it had infested the body of 
,he insect while the latter was still alive); and the absence in 
hese fases of any other apparent cause of death. Strong cor¬ 
roboration is afforded by the fact that this fungus has been 
ound an open-air parasite upon a variety of other insect species, 
ind that it has been lately conveyed to a great variety of per- 
ectly healthy insects by exposure both to chinch bugs and to 
pther insect species on which it had matured its spores, and by 
treatment with this fungus obtained in quantity by artificial 
•ultivation. 
The Entomophthora has not been cultivated artificially, but 
die Micrococcus, on the other hand, has been apparently so 
cultivated, although infrequently and with difficulty, the princi¬ 
pal obstacle to success being the number of other bacterial 
ipecies almost inevitably conveyed with it in attempts to infect 
culture media from so minute a source as the fluids and tissues 
pf this little insect. I say “apparently so cultivated” because 
ill identifications of these cultures rest on simple microscopic 
comparison of bacilli obtained in them with those taken direct- 
y from the chinch bugs—no opportunity having occurred to 
3 est their identity by watching the effects of their application 
o healthy insects; that is to say, my evidence of identity of 
:he original and the cultivated bacilli is all morphological 
md not at all pathological; and although I have had in every 
case the advantage of the judgment of so high an expert au¬ 
thority as my colleague, Prof. Burrill, of the University, neither 
pf us regard these identifications as more than provisional.' 
RECENT HISTORY. 
In my first report as State Entomologist (1882). besides call¬ 
ing attention to an observation of Dr. Shinier at Mt. Carroll, 
Illinois, in 1867, on a supposed epidemic disease of chinch bugs, 
* Numerous perfectly successful cultures of this Micrococcus have since been made in 
fluid and solid media by transferring to the culture tubes diseased coeca obtained by dis¬ 
section. From these cultures we learn that this bacterial species will not grow in an acid 
medium,—a fact which probably explains its limitation to the secreting coeca of the alimen¬ 
tary canal. 
