126 
ceous insect species, ground beetles especially, may devour white 
grubs occasionally, as has indeed been suggested by Riley 
(Sixth Ent. Rep. Mo.), but I have no record of precise observa¬ 
tions to that effect. The fact that the beetles may sometimes 
fall a prey to carnivorous insects, is shown by two specimens 
brought to my office by a student of the University, May 21, 
1891. One of these was an example of L. hirticula, which he 
had found with the tip of its abdomen torn open, crawling up a 
stem of grass. The other was a Chlsenius tomentosus, found 
clinging to the Lachnosterna and feeding upon its viscera partly 
drawn out of the wound. The frequency with which mites are 
found clustered upon white grubs in their earthen cells,* especially 
upon those recently dead or in a weakened condition, has given 
rise to the supposition, hitherto not experimentally verified, 
that these mites may be parasitic on the grubs. 
On the whole, the general tenor of our own observations, as 
well as those published by other entomologists, must lead us to 
attach comparatively little economic importance to the insect 
enemies of white grubs, whether predaceous or parasitic. 
Reptiles and Amphibians. —The fact that the toad occasionally 
eats June beetles has been reported (Proc. Ent. Soc. Washing¬ 
ton, Yol. L, p. 69), and could no doubt be verified extensively 
by dissections of toads made at times when the June beetle is 
abroad. Frogs must likewise be placed on the list of the natural 
enemies of these beetles.f Prof. Perkins, of the University of 
Yermont, has found as many as ten in the stomach of a single 
frog of medium size.$ It is altogether likely that insectivorous 
reptiles, serpents especially, would be found to destroy a still 
greater number of these insects, but no studies have been made, 
to my knowledge, on this point. 
Fungi. —But one contagious disease of the American white 
grub occurring in nature has been positively and definitely con¬ 
nected with a fungus parasite. This parasite ( Cordyceps ma/o- 
lontlise) has been several times referred to in economic liter¬ 
ature, first in the “American Journal of Science ’and Arts” 
(August, 1824). It was treated at length in an illustrated 
article published by Riley in the “American Entomologist” for 
June, 1880. According to a correspondent of Walsh’s in 1869, 
it has sometimes been very common in Virginia ;§ and Mrs. 
Treat reported the occurrence of thousands of infested speci¬ 
mens in Benton county, Iowa, in 1865.11 Perkins mentions it 
as infesting grubs of Lachnosterna in Yermont.H This species 
is, so far as known, incapable of artificial cultivation, and could 
consequently be used for insecticide purposes only by distribut¬ 
ing as carriers of infection white grubs which had been in con-1 
tact with others infested with it. Indications have not been 
<—»-——-“I 
* Fifth Arm. Rep. Vt. Agr. Exper. Station (1891), p. 147; Rep. U. S. Dept. Agr. 1892, p. 165. 
+ “Insect Life,” Vol. II., p. 195, and Trans. Wis. State Agr. Soc., Vol. XIX. (1881), p. 297. 
t Fifth Ann. Rep. Vt. Agr. Exper. Station (1891), p. 153. 
§ Am. Ent., Vol. I., p. 91. 
II Am. Ent., Vol. II., p. 53. 
U Fifth Ann. Rep. Vt. Agr. Station (1891), p. 148. 
