LAGENIDIALES 997 



8-12 x 20-90 [i, lobed, curved, occasionally branched, and usually 

 constricted at septa; reduced thalli continuous, oval, 9-18 x 12-25 [x, 

 oblong, 6-15 x 13-50 u., and slightly irregular. Sporangia of same size 

 and shape as segments and reduced thalli with one or two, 3-5 u. broad 

 by 5-18 [x long exit tubes which extend beyond the surface of the host. 

 Zoospore segments delimited completely in the sporangium, rounding 

 up immediately upon emerging and forming a mass of cystospores 

 near the exit orifice; cystospores spherical, 4.5-6 jjl, giving rise to slightly 

 reniform, 4-5 x 5.5-6.5 \x, diplanetic zoospores. Oospores or resting 

 spores formed parthenogenetically by contraction and encystment of 

 protoplasm in thallus segments; usually solitary, rarely double in seg- 

 ments; shape spherical, 8-16 \x, oval, 6-10 x 9-14 [jl, elongate, 5-8 x 

 12-20 [J., occasionally curved, irregular, lobed and dumbbell-shaped; 

 wall 2.5-3 [i thick, smooth at first, later becoming deeply wrinkled so as 

 to make spores pointed or somewhat stellate in appearance; content 

 hyaline and finely granular with a large central or eccentric vacuole; 

 germination unknown" (Karling, loc. cit.). 



Parasitic in the eggs and bodies of Distyla sp. and Philodina sp., eggs 

 of Chaetonotus larus and bodies of Heterodera sp., from soil, Brazil. 



Unlike Lagenidium oedogonii, the zoospores typically are discharged 

 in Achlya-hke fashion. Furthermore, they may undergo several repeated 

 emergences. It is possible that future studies may make it advisable to 

 remove this and species with similar zoospore discharge from Lage- 

 nidium. 



Lagenidium intermedium de Wildeman 

 Ann. Soc. Beige Micro. (Mem.), 19: 97, pi. 4, figs. 10-13. 1895 

 Thallus tubular, complex, more or less isodiametric, rarely torulose, 

 with short or long irregular branches; sporangia relatively few, each 

 composed of a cylindrical element or of a complex of branches, dis- 

 charge tube very narrowly cylindrical, sometimes slightly expanded 

 beneath the host wall and locally constricted when passing through 

 the wall, frequently prolonged extramatrically ; zoospores not observed; 

 (?) resting spore intercalary, spherical, with a thick smooth wall, ger- 

 mination not observed; antheridium not observed. 



