OF CERTAIN TERMITE NESTS. 227 



The Xylarias. 



Thwaites' specimen No. 554 is labelled " White ants' nests," 

 and was grouped by Berkeley (14) with other numbers as 

 " conidiferous forms of unknown species " of Xylaria : he adds 

 that the fungi of No. 554 occur on the nests of termites when 

 exposed to the light. It includes about two dozen thin, 

 xylaria-like structures of varying shapes, simple, bifid, or 

 repeatedly forked, from 1 to 6 centimetres in height, but 

 they show no trace of conidia or conidiophores. 



My attention was directed to these apparent Xylarias by Mr. 

 E. E. Green, who has repeatedly exhibited the phenomenon 

 of their production to entomologists, &c, who have visited 

 Peradeniya. 



If a fresh termite comb from which the insects have been 

 removed is placed under a bell jar, the spheres decay, and after 

 two or three days are succeeded by small groups of erect hy- 

 phae which grow rapidly into tall thin structures resembling 

 the conidial forms of Xylaria. 



These arise from the interior of the comb substance, and 

 are apparently continuous with the mycelium in it. If the 

 termites have not been completely removed from the comb, 

 the survivors in a short time eat off all the spheres and also 

 the external hyphae : this however does not affect the produc- 

 tion of the Xylaria-like structures, though the latter are eaten 

 off also as they appear. They are not therefore dependent 

 upon the external mycelium. 



The hyphae are indistinguishable from those which arise to 

 form the agaric : they are hyaline, septate, rather thick- walled , 

 branching, with swollen heads, and filled with granular pro- 

 toplasm. They are about 4-^ /* in diameter on emergence , and 

 increase to 6-8^, swelling at the extremity into a clavate head, 

 10-12 ft in diameter : they unite to form a loose column with free 

 ends projecting on all sides. Hyphae about 3 p in diameter are 

 present in the comb substance : from these the aerial hyphae 

 emerge perpendicularly and bend together from a breadth 

 several ti mes the dia m eter of the subsequently developed stroma . 



