TUBIFERA 213 



Rarely found in any particular area, although its range ap- 

 pears to be conterminous with that of T. ferruginosa. In my 

 twenty years of collecting activities, from upper Quebec to 

 Florida, and in the West Indies, I have found it only eight times. 

 It may be only a variant, produced occasionally from the Plasmo- 

 dium of T. ferruginosa, somewhat like similar forms found rarely 

 in the genus Fuligo, and consisting of a small cluster of sporangia 

 on a stalk-like strand from the hypothallus. A curious specimen, 

 collected in Florida by Dr. Erdman West, has the usual groups 

 of sporangia on stout stalks, and a number of single, ellipsoid 

 sporangia on long, thin, dark stalks. Single sporangia have been 

 reported before from Ceylon by Fetch (Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 3. 

 188). These forms seem to connect the species with Alwisia 

 Bombarda. 



3. Tubifera Casparyi (Rost.) Macbr. N. A. Slime-Moulds 157. 

 1899. 



Siphoptychium Casparyi Rost. Mon. App. 32. 1876. 



Plasmodium white, with changes similar to those in T. fer- 

 ruginosa. Sporangia closely compacted, resembling T. ferrugi- 

 nosa in shape, size, color, and spores, but usually in large aethalia- 

 like cushions; sporangial wall connected with a long, central 

 columella by numerous straight, tubular processes or threads. 

 Spores usually 6-8 m diam. 



Type locality: Europe. 



Habitat: On dead wood. 



Distribution: Alabama, British Columbia, Delaware, *Iowa, 

 Massachusetts, New Brunswick, New York, *Ohio, Ontario, 

 Pennsylvania, Quebec, Vermont, ^Washington. 



Illustration: Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 3. pi. 150, figs. f-h. 



The columellae and connecting processes are often absent or 

 rudimentary in many sporangia of the pseudo-aethalium. The 

 three species of the genus Tubifera are subject to the ravages of 

 insects and the common slugs which feed upon the rising sporan- 

 gia, and the spores. It is interesting to see how in the present 

 species there is developing an internal structure which strengthens 

 the sporangium, increases its defense against the attacks of ene- 

 mies, and provides thereby more protection until the spores are 

 mature. 



