THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 63 



in flower or in bud : — Acianthus exsertus, Pterostylis nutans, P. 

 pedunculata, P. nana, P. concinna, Caladenia latifolia, Caladenia 

 Patersoni ; also a large specimen of Pterostylis longifolia, this 

 orchid being now very scarce in this neighbourhood. Returning 

 towards the station across the heath ground, the following 

 plants were noticed in flower : — Hibbertia densiflora, H. stricta, 

 Acacia oxycedrus, /Styphelia virgata, S. huviijusa, Craspedia 

 Pichea, Microseris Fosteri (the native edible yam), Hypoxis 

 glabella, Aotus villosa, &c. — C. French, jun. 



ENTOMOGENOUS FUNGI. 



By D. M 'Alpine. 



fRead hefore Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 8th Jidy, 189,5.^ 



Entomogenous fungi, or fungi growing upon insects, have 

 already been brought under the notice of the Club, so that it will 

 be unnecessary to dwell upon their general features. They seem 

 to have reached their highest development in Australia, and are 

 therefore worthy of our special attention and study. 



During the month of May I received from Mr. French, Govern- 

 ment Entomologist, the larva of a moth, Darala (sp.), obtained 

 by the Rev. E. H. Hennell, as well as a cockroach, Panesthia 

 Australis, with fungi growing upon them. I propose in this paper 

 giving a general account of the latter, together with the descrip- 

 tion of a species of Isaria kindly handed to me by Mr. Kershaw. 



I. — ENTOiMOPHYTE ON COCKROACH [Pauesthia Australis). 



The insect is covered on the under surface of the body and 

 sides as well as on the legs and slightly on the back with a white 

 felty mould, inclining to cream colour. Under the microscope 

 this is seen to consist of innumerable delicate threads or hyphaj, 

 which are very fine, colourless, repeatedly branched, septate, and 

 on an average about 2.5 to 3 p. broad. The conidia, or re- 

 productive bodies, are borne in tufts at irregular intervals along 

 the hyphae, and are also colourless, spherical, and averaging from 

 3 to 4 /x. in diameter. From the above description the fungus is 

 seen to belong to the group of what are popularly called " moulds," 

 or scientifically, Hyphomycetes. Next, it belongs to the order 

 Mucedinacece, because the hyph?e are finely filamentous, pale in 

 colour, lax and crowded, but not agglutinated together. Then it 

 belongs to the section Amerosporece, because the conidia are 

 spherical, continuous, and colourless ; and to the sub-section 

 Macronemece because the hyphse are elongated and distinct from 

 the conidia; to the tribe Botrytidm because the conidia are inserted 

 on simple or branched hyphse. It is probably a species of 



