l886.J NEW- YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 149 



CAPRELLA ACUMINIFERA. 



Mr. F. W. Leggett : " This singular crustacean, sometimes 

 called the ' ghost-shrimp,' is pictured and described by Milne- 

 Edwards in his great work published in Paris in 1837. Save in 

 the Encyclopedia Britannica, I have been unable to find it de- 

 scribed elsewhere. Milne-Edwards says it is an habitue of the 

 shores of the English Channel. These animals are nest-builders. 

 Some of their nests resemble those of birds, while others are 

 merely tubes ; and they are constructed of wood, stones, and 

 mud-clay, fastened together by a cement excreted by the 

 animal. 



" I have on the slide a male and female, the pouch of the 

 female being filled with eggs, one of which has been forced out 

 in the process of mounting. The male is larger than the female, 

 and has a much larger claw. This is characteristic of the spe- 

 cies. I found these specimens at Black Rock, Connecticut. 

 Their houses were tubular, and had been built on sea-grass. It 

 is said that these creatures are destructive to timber. For such 

 destruction their sharp jaws seem to be well adapted." 



FRUIT OF THE FUNGUS MICROSPH^RIA EXTENSA. 



The B.ev. J. L. Zabriskie : " This fungus is one of the Blights, 

 of which another species was exhibited at the last meeting. It 

 is common in our region on the upper surface of the leaves of 

 various oaks, as the Pin-Oak, the White Oak, and the Red Oak. 

 The web-like mycelium of the fungus is quite durable on the 

 leaf surface, giving the latter a dusty, soiled appearance. The 

 spherical conceptacles are black at maturity, about .005 of an 

 inch in diameter, each containing four sporangia or sacks, and 

 each sporangium containing from four to eight spores. 



" The appendages of this species are quite striking in appear- 

 ance. They number from eight to sixteen. They radiate 

 horizontally from the periphery of the conceptacle, are delicate, 

 colorless except for a short distance near their origin, about 

 four times as long as the diameter of the conceptacle, and are 

 elaborately ornamented at the tip. The extremity of the append- 

 age is from four to five times dichotomously branched ; i.e., suc- 

 cessively divided into two portions, and the pairs of ultimate 

 divisions tend to take the form of the double volute of an Ionic 



