Cunningham. — The Genu* Cordyceps in New Zealand. 375 



Spores hyaline, filiform, multiseptate, arranged in the asci in parallel 

 fascicles, or interwoven ; breaking up in the asci into secondary spores, or 

 remaining entire. 



Isarial stage when present forming an effused downy weft or an erect 

 simple or variously branched stroma, consisting of hyphae bearing the 

 hyaline continuous conidia on their apices. 



1. Cordyceps Sinclairii Berk., Fl. N.Z., vol. 2, p. 338, 1855. (Plate LXII, 

 fig. 2.) 



Sphaeria Basili Taylor, N.Z. and its Inhabitants, p. 424, 1844. Tor- 

 rnbia caespitosa Tulasne.- Select. Fung. Carp., vol. 3, p. 11, 1865. 

 Cordyceps caespitosa Sacc, Syll., vol. 2, p. 565, 1883. 



Isarial Stage : Stromata growing from head of host, yellowish, from 

 18 mm. to 25 mm. high ; stems cylindrical, slender, simple or forked, some- 

 times confluent, 8 mm. or more high, divided above into numerous more 

 or less cylindrical simple or slightly-lobed heads, which are sometimes dis- 

 posed into a flabelliform mass clothed with innumerable oblong conidia 

 7-8 /a long. (Berkeley.) 



Perithecia unknown. 



Hosts. — Melampsalta cinqulata Fabr. ; M. cruentata Fabr. (Plate LXII. 

 fig. 3.) 



Type Locality. — Tauranga, Poverty Bay, in loose gravelly soil in garden 

 of Bishop Williams ; " growing from larva of some orthopterous [sic] insect." 



Distribution. — Tauranga (Colenso) ; Farewell Spit, Nelson (Benham) (2) ; 

 Weraroa (E. H. Atkinson) ! Hokitika (unknown collector) ! 



There is a fine specimen in the Canterbury Museum collection ! 

 (Plate LXII, fig. 2, c). 



No. 79, Biol. Lab. Herb. (Crypt.), Wellington. 



This form should really have been named as an Isaria, as only he 

 conidial form is known. It is possible that this may be the conidial stage of 

 Cordyceps sobolifera Tub, as this species occurs on cicada in Japan. As all 

 the other species occurring in New Zealand are endemic, with the exception 

 of Cordyceps Robertsii, which is found only in Australia and New Zealand, 

 it is, however, more likely that Cordyceps (?) Sinclairii is also endemic. 



It is a very variable form, and assumes many different shapes. The 

 colour of the stroma ranges from white in the most immature specimens, 

 through yellow (colour mentioned by Berkeley), light brown, in more mature 

 forms becoming pink, deepening in colour with age. 



Although specimens are fairly plentiful in the New Zealand museums, 

 none are known in any of the mycological collections abroad (14). A most 

 interesting account of this species (with plate) is given by Benham (2). 



Notes on the Hosts (by J. G. Myers). — Of the four specimens available 

 for study, only two are in at all a good state from an entomological point of 

 view ; but it is significant that all four hosts are nymphs of the final instar, 

 with wing-pads well developed and the whole appearance suggestive of 

 almost immediate emergence. This is of interest in that it is an indication 

 that the nymphs are, of course, full-grown — a fact which enables an esti- 

 mate of their species to be made with greater accuracy than would otherwise 

 be possible. The two large specimens can be assigned almost certainly to 

 Melampsalta cinqulata Fabr. (6), while the two others, both of the same 

 size and smaller than the, other two, belong to one of the smaller cicadas, 

 most probably to Melampsalta cruentata Fabr. (6). 



