254 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



has not been satisfactorily made out. Peck, in his description of the 

 fungus, refers to them as if he considered them a product of the plant. 

 He says : " It is not unusual to find little heaps, or even masses of 

 spores retained within the veil. These heaps of spores are generally per- 

 meated by minute filaments, which apparently aid in holding the spores 

 together." f Observe that the author speaks of them as generally present, 

 leaving it to be inferred that they are in some cases absent. This accords 

 with my observations. Many of the fungi having matured and become 

 dry retain the tangles of filaments, in which also the cast skins of the 

 Platydeina larva? may be found suspended. Other specimens can easily 

 be found which have never been occupied by this insect, and contain no 

 filaments. Moreover, this fungus is not the only one exhibiting a similar 

 connection between a Platydeina and these hair-like filaments. I can 

 recall instances in which artificial cavities made by boletophagous larvae 

 in the pileus of some of our eastern fungi were similarly filled with fila- 

 ments, among which the larvae of a Platydema passed actively back and 

 forth. I am, in fact, of the opinion that these filaments are closely con- 

 nected in some unexplained way with this beetle. If not produced 

 directly by the Platydema larvje itself, they may be a separate fungus 

 engendered by its debris. In any case they certainly serve a purpose 

 very useful to the active larva in providing it with a convenient scaffold- 

 ing on which its lithe, elongated and exceedingly slippery body is 

 securely supported, and by means of which it can climb about and reach 

 any part of the interior of the cavity, the walls of which it is engaged in 

 eating away. 



It remains to mention a {q.\n other insects which attack the substance 

 of the fungus, burrowing into the spongy pileus and piercing holes 

 innumerable in its leathery walls, ultimately disintegrating and destroying 

 it. These are a species of Cis or Ennearthron, and two lepidopterous 

 larvEe which were not studied and remain entirely unknown. My field 

 notes merely state that one of these is a larva nearly an inch long, living 

 in the hymeneal cavity and filling it with web. The second species is a 

 shorter and thicker larva, which eats its way into the solid base and thick 

 upper portions of the pileus, entirely destroying the whole structure. 

 Three or four of these larvae are found in one large specimen of the fungus. 



The work of the Cisid and its larva is too well known to require a 

 detailed description. The beetle occupies in great numbers the cavities 



fljLillelin Toirey iJotanical Clul), \'ol. \'II., iSSo, p. 102. 



