ORDER ENTOMOPHTHORALES 175 



(1925) in pure culture from a fungus mass deep in a fistular abscess in 

 the leg of a horse in Java. On the excrement it forms sporangiophores 

 which shoot off the not yet divided sporangia, much as occurs in Piloholus. 

 These sporangia are eaten by beetles which in turn are devoured by 

 frogs or lizards in whose stomachs the beetles are digested, setting free 

 the sporangia which only then divide internally to produce the spores. 

 These escape from the sporangium and multiply in the alimentary canal 

 by fission or by budding. They are set free in the excrement and then 

 germinate to form mycelium on which are produced other sporangia. This 

 mycelium is at first coenocytic but soon septa appear and divide it into 

 a multiseptate branched mycelium. Zygospore formation is as follows: 

 Two adjacent segments of a hypha send up parallel beaks in contact, 

 into each of which a nucleus migrates and divides. One nucleus of each 

 pair remains in the apex at its beak, being cut off by a septum. One of the 

 two original segments enlarges considerably, an opening is dissolved 

 through the separating septum, and the nucleus and part of the cytoplasm 

 of the smaller cell pass into the larger cell. There the nuclei fuse and the 

 thick-walled "zygospore" is formed. Couch (1939) reported that the cell 

 wall responds to the chloriodide of zinc test by the cellulose reaction. 

 Because of this and of the uninucleate condition of the cells he advocated 

 placing Basidiobolus in a separate family, Basidiobolaceae. (Figs. 61A-F, 

 62A-E.) 



Ancylistes was formerly included in the Ancylistidaceae (now called 

 Lagenidiaceae) because of the similarity of its vegetative structure and 

 sexual reproduction to Lagenidium. No zoospore production is known. 

 With the discovery by Miss Berdan (1938) that "conidia" similar to 

 those in the Entomophthorales were produced and that these were shot 

 off in the same manner the genus had to be transferred to the latter order. 

 The three species are parasitic in Desmidiaceae of the genus Closterium. 

 Two adjacent cells in the same filament or cells in contact in parallel 

 filaments may conjugate. One cell is usually smaller than the other and 

 the thick-walled zygospore is formed in a protuberance from the larger 

 cell. Its germination is unknown. 



Completoria is parasitic in the cells of the gametophytes of ferns. In- 

 fection spreads from cell to cell of the host by means of hyphae pene- 

 trating the cell walls. Azygospores are formed in the host cells. The 

 conidiophores emerge into the air and bear conidia which are violently 

 discharged. The mycelial masses in the host cells are much branched and 

 lobed and not conspicuously septate. 



Entomophthora is the largest genus of the family, containing, according 

 to Fitzpatrick (1930), about 40 species, all parasitic within insects. Some 

 species of this genus are called Empusa by some Avriters, but since this 

 name was used earlier for a genus of Orchids the next later name, Ento- 



