Prototrichia 271 



1. Prototrichia metallica (Berk.) Massee, Jour. Roy. Micr. Soc. 

 1889:350. 1889. 



Trichia metallica Berk, in Hooker f., FI. Tasm. 2: 268. 1859. 



Trichia flagellifer Berk. & Br. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. HI. 18: 56. 1866. 



Plasmodium white (Lister). Sporangia crowded or scattered, 

 subglobose, 0.5 to 1 mm. diam., sessile on a broad base, or short- 

 stalked, rarely forming plasmodiocarps, brown or copper-colored, 

 shining, iridescent; sporangial wall membranous, pale pinkish 

 brown or glaucous, smooth, translucent, marked on the inner side 

 with the slender, persistent ends of the threads of the capillitium. 

 Stalk, when present, cylindrical, 0.1 to 0.4 mm. high, yellowish 

 brown, enclosing dense granular matter. Capillitium arising 

 from the base of the sporangium as numerous red or olive-brown, 

 stout, solid threads, marked with two to four spiral bands, branch- 

 ing repeatedly above to form a pencil of slender branchlets at- 

 tached by their extremities to the sporangial wall. Spores pink 

 or pale pinkish brown, minutely warted, 9-12 /x diam. 



Type locality: Tasmania. 



Habitat: On dead wood and bark. 



Distribution: *Alberta, *California, Colorado, North Caro- 

 lina, *Washington, Wyoming. 



Illustration: Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 3. pi. 195. 



This species appears to be fairly common in certain areas of 

 the western mountains where active collecting has been pursued. 

 My only personal collection came from the Great Smoky Moun- 

 tains of North Carolina, at an altitude of 4,200 feet. 



