ORDER AURICULARIALES 



445 





H 



Fig. 146. Order Auriculariales, Family Phleogenaceae. Phleogena decorticata 

 (Schw.) Mart. (A) Habit study of the fungus. (B) Basidiophoric hypha with apex 

 extended to form part of the so-called peridium. (C-H) Stages in the development of 

 the basidium and basidiospores. (A-B, after Brefeld: Untersuchungen aus dem 

 Gesammtgebiete der Mykologie, Heft 7, pp. 1-178. C-H, courtesy, Shear and Dodge: J. 

 Agr. Research, 30(5):407-417.) 



sidia are two-celled and the spores hyaline. There is one species in Europe 

 and North America and three others in the tropics. There is uncertainty 

 as to whether the genus really belongs here. (Fig. 146.) 



Family Septobasidiaceae. This is considered by Couch (1937 and 

 1938) to be worthy of ordinal rank. The two genera included in the family 

 are parasitic upon scale insects, with which they live in a sort of symbiotic 

 relationship much as the lichen fungus does with the imprisoned algae. 

 For the majority of these insects the fungus provides a home and shelter 

 where they feed upon the woody host plant and produce their young. 

 Some of the insects, however, are parasitized and continue to feed upon 

 the host plant but give up their food to the fungus which penetrates their 

 bodies with numerous coiled or knotted haustoria. These insects may out- 



