Francis E. Lloyd — 174 — Carnivorous Plants 



fallen conidium by means of a minute mass of golden yellow adhesive 

 material." "From the mycehal element or the conidium is thrust 

 forth a narrow process which passes through the deposit of adhesive 

 material and perforates the animal's pellicle to give rise inside to a 

 more or less characteristically branched haustorium or haustorial 

 system. When the protoplasmic contents of the Amoeba are nearly 

 exhausted, the protoplasm of the haustorium begins to withdraw 

 back into the parent mycelial filament. Eventually the haustorium 

 is completely evacuated and thereupon, like the collapsed pellicle 

 surrounding it, becomes altogether invisible; so that an instance of 

 capture is afterwards found recorded, and then usually only rather 

 dubiously, in an inconspicuous scar-hke or shghtly protuberant modi- 

 fication of the contour of the hypha or conidium" (Text fig. 4c), 

 (Drechsler 1935&, p. 183). In the case of another fungus, Endo- 

 cochlus asteroides Drechsler, the animal is attacked by conidia picked up 

 in its wanderings. Sticking to the surface of the pelhcle, they form a 

 small bulbous body, serving apparently as an appressorium, through 

 which a slender tube punctures the pellicle and enters the animal, pass- 

 ing in to some distance. There the end swells up, taking in the proto- 

 plasm of the conidium, which becomes detached and is usually thrown 

 off by the animal. Sometimes the conidium is ingested, however. 

 Owing to the fact that the animal may be infected a number of times, 

 because of the numbers of fallen spores, it may have a corresponding 

 number of bulbous bodies, each derived from a conidium. After the 

 conidium with its germ tube is loosened and cast off, the remaining 

 globular thallus becomes considerably enlarged and turgid. As it length- 

 ens it curves and with elongation becomes a helicoidal mass. In the 

 meantime, the animal remains alive and active, so that we are con- 

 templating here a case of parasitism. The briskness of action per- 

 sists for some time, until the bulk of the animal becomes reduced, 

 and it finally succumbs. The inclosed fungus then sends out slender 

 hyphae which penetrate the pellicle to the exterior, where spores 

 and sexual apparatus are produced, to produce new hyphae which 

 begin the cycle again. The same story is presented by Cochlonema 

 verrucosum Drechsler, and in C. dolichosporum, but in these it^ is 

 started by conidia which are first ingested by the animal, one having 

 the same dimensions as Amoeba sphaeronucleus. In Bdellospora heli- 

 coides Drechsler the infection takes place as in Endocochlus asteroides. 

 In Zoopage phanera Drechsler the manner of capture is a matter 

 of inference rather than direct observation. The animal captured 

 is an Amoeba from 35-110 micra in diameter. An adhesive is in- 

 dicated, though Drechsler suggests that the small botryoidal or- 

 gans seen in a captured animal could be taken for grappling organs. 

 At all events they are very distinctive in form as his figure shows. 

 In the forms above described it is evident that we are dealing 

 with organisms that stand between plants which have elaborated 

 organs designed — if we may use the word — for first trapping an 

 animal before disposing of it, and those which infect an animal by a 

 process which must be repeated in a very many cases, as for instance 

 that of Cordyceps and related plants already mentioned. Carnivorous 

 the latter are, but they can hardly be regarded as "trapping" plants. 



