CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE CRYPTOGAMIC LABORATORY OF 

 HARVARD UNIVERSITY. — XL V. 



PRELIMINARY DIAGNOSES OF NEW SPECIES OF 

 LABOULBENIACEAE. — III. 



By Roland Thaxter. 



Received February 26, 1901. Presented March 13, 1901. 



During the summer of 1900 I took occasion to visit Berlin in order 

 to examine the collections of insects at the Museum of Natural History 

 there in search of Laboulbeniaceae, and through the courtesy of the 

 director, Professor Moebius, and of the staff of the Entomological Labo- 

 ratories, to whom I desire in this connection to express my great obliga- 

 tions, was successful in obtaining numerous new and interesting forms 

 from all parts of the world. To the great kindness of Dr. David Sharp 

 of Cambridge, England, I am further indebted for the privilege of ex- 

 amining, for a similar purpose, his magnificent collections, especially of 

 Staphylinidae and Gyrinidae, as well as the large series of singular Cara- 

 bidae brought from the Hawaiian Islands by Mr. Perkins. A consider- 

 able number of new or peculiar forms have moreover been added to the 

 American flora since my return, for a portion of which I am indebted to 

 Mr. Charles Bullard, who has very kindly placed his material at my 

 disposal. The number of new forms from all sources thus combines 

 to make a notable addition to the family as a whole, and indicates that 

 my former estimates of its numerical importance were by no means 

 exaggerated. 



Among the most interesting of these novelties are those which have 

 been derived from dipterous insects, since they not only enlarge our 

 systematic knowledge of new or little known genera, but illustrate in 

 a striking manner the curiously variable relation of these parasites to 

 such soft-bodied hosts. That so considerable a number of species were 

 found on Diptera is in a great measure due to Professor Dahl, who 

 called my attention to the fact that some of the small flies collected by 

 him at Ralurn in New Pomerania, near New Guinea, were parasitized, 

 and I was thus led to make a careful examination of the whole collection 



