I reported the discovery of the bacterial form above alluded to. 
published a description of it under a specific name attached to 
it by Prof. T. J. Burrill, of the University of Illinois, and gave 
an account of its relations to the chinch bug and its apparent 
effect upon that insect. I also reported in this same article the 
discovery of an Entomophthora infesting the chinch bug. 
In the last report from this office (1888), p. 45, I gave later 
observations on both these insect fungi, and reported also the 
discovery, in 1887, of a third, then regarded by Professor Bur¬ 
rill as a Botrytis. but later determined for me by Mr. Thaxter 
as Sporotrichum globuliferum , Spegazzini. The direct effect of 
these fungi upon the chinch-bug hosts then abroad throughout 
the southern part of the State was described in this article, and 
various additional details were given, especially with respect to 
the precise position of the microbe in the organs of the chinch 
bug. Successful cultures of this bacterial species were also re¬ 
ported, a part of them, perhaps, erroneously. A more critical 
study of the mounted slides from these cultures (then quite re¬ 
cently made) shows that in several cases the form appearing in 
the cultures was not certainly identical with that from the in¬ 
terior- of the chinch bug—a fact easily understood when one 
takes into account the readiness with which foreign bacteria 
may be introduced into culture media when the material for in¬ 
fection is obtained by crushing an entire insect. 
Since the publication of this report numerous interesting con¬ 
tributions to the subject have been made by Dr. Otto Lugger, 
of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, who has 
studied specially the entomophthorous disease, and who has 
made some seemingly successful experiments at its dissemina¬ 
tion bv scattering abroad infested insects; by Professor F. H. 
Snow, now Chancellor of the University of Kansas, who has en¬ 
tered upon a systematic line of experiments intended to test 
methods of transfer and practical application; and by Mr. F. 
M. Webster, of Indiana, who made a similar experiment with 
material obtained from Professor Snow. A list of these recent 
papers on the subject is appended to the present article. 
I have now to give a detailed account of my own more re- 
cent culture experiments with these fungi, so far as these seem 
to have any value or importance either immediate or prospec¬ 
tive. My principal present object is, not so much to advance 
directly our knowledge of this matter as to show the difficulties 
experienced in its study, in the hope that some possible error 
and a waste of time may thus be prevented hereafter. 
Micrococcus insect ovum , Burrill. 
Our first attempts at the artificial culture of this Micrococcus 
since 1883 were made September 1-3, 1886, by an assistant, 
during my absence from the office, the specimens used having 
been sent in bv me from the field, in Washington couutv. in 
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