On a Bacterial Disease of the Squash-bug (Anasa tristis DeG.).

Abstract

During July, 1895, while occupied as an Assistant in the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, in studying some fungous diseases of the chinch-bug I used many squash-bugs (Anasa tristis DeG.) for experimental purposes. These squash-bugs were kept in a laboratory breeding-cage, and daily supplied with fresh food and a suitable amount of moisture, and were soon observed to be dying in considerable numbers.  Disease symptoms are described, as are isolation and culture of the organism, and infection experiments on squash bugs, chinch bugs (Blissus leucopterus), box elder bugs (Leptocoris trivittatus), grasshoppers, grubs, and caterpillars.  The disease agent is described as new, Bacillus entomotoxicon n. sp.