132 THE PHYCOMYCETES 



Basidiobohis ranannn grows on the excrement of frogs, liz- 

 ards, salamanders, and similar animals. The sporangia produced 

 on this substrate are eaten by beetles and other insects, which may 

 in turn be devoured by frogs. During digestion within the frog's 

 stomach the spores are delimited within the sporangia and set 

 free. They are not digested but increased by budding and are 

 voided intact to initiate again the developmental cycle. 



Artificial cultivation. The saprophytic members of the 

 Entomophthorales grow rather well and readily on artificial 

 media. Many failures resulted from attempts to cultivate the 

 entomogenous species, however, until Sawyer (1929) determined 

 that media high in proteins are required. He employed media 

 containing eggs, various kinds of fish, clams, beef, and pork and 

 found them suitable for artificial cultivation of Entomophthora 

 sphaerosperma, isolated from Rhopobata vacciniana, E. pseudo- 

 cocci from Fseiidococciis calceolariae, and an Empusa from 

 Feronea iiiiniita. These organisms are said to ammonify proteins 

 without the liberation of gas and odorous cleavage products. 

 Perhaps this situation may result from (1) either the utilization 

 of ammonia as rapidly as it is formed, or (2) its accumulation in 

 amounts too meager to be detectable. 



Classification. No general taxonomic treatise of this group 

 is extant except Thaxter's monograph (1888), which lists 26 

 species of Entomophthora. Olive (1906) described 5 additional 

 species, and subsequent accounts bring the total number to ap- 

 proximately 40. Completoria complens, a monotypic species, 

 exists on fern prothallia. Six species of Alassospora have been de- 

 scribed, including Massospora cicadhm on cicadas. Basidiobohis 

 ranaruvi and B. lacertae are regarded as identical. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Goldstein, Bessie, "Resting spores of Evipiisa miiscae^' Bull. Torrey Botan. 



Club, 50:317-328, 1923. 

 "A cytological study of the fungus Massospora cicadina, parasitic on the 



17-year cicada, Magicicada septemdecivi,'' Ain. J. Botaiiy, 16: 394-401, 



1929. 

 Kevorkian, A. G., "Studies in the Entomophthoraceae. I. Observations on 



the genus Conidiobolus," /. Agr. Puerto Rico, 21: 191-200, 1937. 

 Olr-e, E. W., "Cytological studies on the Entomophthoreae," Botan. Gaz., 



41: 192-208, 229-261, 1906. 



