ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION 129 



jMycelium. The mycelium of this assemblage of fungi is much 

 reduced. It arises from a coenocytic spore, ^^'hich in Ejitomoph- 

 thora finnosa, according to Rees (1932), is always four-nucleate. 

 Soon the mycelium becomes plurinucleate, \\hereupon it seg- 

 ments and falls apart into plurinucleate or even uninucleate ele- 

 ments called hyphal bodies. These, in turn, may increase in 

 number by further segmentation until they replace most of the 

 internal tissues of the host insects. 



Asexual reproduction. Shortly after the death of the insect 

 tubular outgrowths, the conidiophores, emerge in tufts, usually at 

 the junctures of the chitinous covering. These processes extend 

 from the hyphal bodies. They gradually become inflated api- 

 cally, and the entire complement of approximately 20 nuclei 

 moves into the inflated portion. Then a small outgrowth, w hich 

 becomes globose, forms apically, and into it much of the cyto- 

 plasm moves. A sepmm is next formed to delimit the globose 

 tip, the conidium. The conidia are eventually forcibly projected 

 by opposed swelling of the conidium and the conidiophore. 

 Projection of conidia by Entomophthora sphaerosperina is de- 

 tailed by Sawyer (1931). According to his account, the swelling 

 results in a sudden circumferential rupture of the attachment of 

 conidium and conidiophore, and the recoil of the basal membrane 

 of the conidium propels it away. 



Although the Entomophthorales are among the sporangial 

 fungi, they have true conidia. The outer, so-called "sporangial," 

 membrane is only a grelatinous layer w^hich functions to stick the 

 spore to the surface upon which it lodges. When these conidia 

 germinate, there is, therefore, no sporangial membrane to rup- 

 ture. Instead the conidial wall stretches and grows to become 

 the hyphae. 



Conidia are typically plurinucleate [Olive (1906)], although 

 the hyphal bodies of Basidiobolus and those of Entomophthora 

 sciarae regularly become uninucleate. Goldstein (1929) found 

 the conidia of Mas so sp or a cicadina binucleate and the resting 

 spores four-nucleate. On germination the tube may become a 

 secondary conidiophore, bearing a secondary conidium. This 

 production of conidia may be repeated several times until the 

 reserve food has become exhausted. 



Thick-walled resting spores, sometimes called chlamydospores, 

 are not uncommon among Entomophthorales. They have many 



