1885.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 91 



number of perithecia combined in a globular or elongated head. 

 It will be observed that this specimen stands among the highest 

 orders of the fungi. 



Two dozen or more species of Torrubia have been de- 

 scribed as found in different countries. These fungi are the 

 friends of man, because they assist him in the contest with in- 

 jurious insects. Of the several species which, fortunately, occur 

 in our own country, perhaps one of the most common and most 

 widely distributed is the Torrubia Rave^ielii, Berk. It is de- 

 scribed by Prof. C. V. Riley in the " American Entomolo- 

 gist," Vol. III. (Old Series), 1880. It infests the "White Grub," 

 which is the large, fleshy, brown-headed larva of the Lachnosterna 

 fusca, or June-beetle — a larva well-known to farmers and gar- 

 deners for its destructive habits. It feeds principally on the 

 roots of plants, especially of young corn, of 

 various grasses, and of the strawberry. The 

 Torrubia Ravenelii, when developed in this 

 larva, fills its body ; and it sends out, invari- 

 ably from the lower side of the head, near 

 the base of the mandibles, two, sometimes 

 four, fruiting stems, to a length of five or more 

 inches. The infested larva is underground^ 

 Fig. 2.— White-Grub and the fruiting stems grow upward out of 

 Fungus (after Ri- ^^^ g^jj ^^^ -^^^^ ^^^ ^jj.^ ^j^^ \QXig\h de- 

 pends, probably, on the quantity of aliment 

 which is at the command of the fungus. In the second and third 

 illustrations, after Riley, which accompany this article, the 

 fruiting stems are abortive (See Figs. 2 and 3). But the next 

 illustration, after Berkeley, exhibits the stems in fruit (See Fig. 

 4). The stem becomes flexuous, and is surmounted by an elon- 

 gated conical head. The head is dotted with a multitude of black 

 protruding perithecia, which contain the spore-sacs. Each sac 

 yields many spores. The illustration includes a representation 

 of one of the spores as it appears when highly magnified — 

 very long and slender, and many-jointed. When fully ripe, the 

 spore breaks up at the joints. Each segment is capable of re- 

 producing the fungus. 



Another species native to this country, and frequently met 

 with, is the Torrubia inilitaris. It infests those pupae of moths 

 which are concealed just beneath the surface of the ground. The 



