July, 1907] Mycoloyical Bulletin No. 79 337 



The abundance of material at hand of some species made it possible for 

 the writer to determine the relative values of the various characters of 

 a given species. 



The following characters were found to be constant for any given 

 species, viz: Color of stipe, pileus and eggs, surface markings of cap, 

 structure of stipe as to number, shape and openings of the chambers; 

 variable characters were : Sh?pe of both stipe and pileus within narrow 

 limits, presence or absence of a veil, size of stipe and cap and shape 

 and size oi eggs. 



Take the cap of Phallus iiuf>itdicus for instance. It was invariably 

 white and strongly reticulate, but its size and shape was very variable, 

 in some plants being very unsymmetrical but more or less conic to cam- 

 panulate but even in specimens only two inches tall the surface had the 

 characteristic crests and ridges. On some specimens no veil could be 

 detected, while on others there was a strongly developed veil, but this 

 point will be discussed more in detail later in this article. 



In Simhiitm tcxcnsc the variation in shape and size of pileus and stipe 

 was very marked ; the stipe being cylindrical, fusiform, clavate, attenuate 

 downward or upward, terete or angular, while its color and structure was 

 constant ; the pileus likewise was very variable as to shape and size, some 

 specim.ens beirg deeply constricted at juncture of pileus and stipe, while 

 in others there was no constriction. Some had the Simblum characters 

 well defined, while others looked more like a Lysurus with short arms 

 than a Sinil)lum. Indeed it is difificult to determine the genus of this 

 plant from the ordinary field specimens. 



The first specimens found of Phallus iiiipttdicus var. iiiipcrialis. con- 

 sisted of two separate bunches of eggs. One bunch of four eggs from a 

 common rhizomorph, the other of eight plants, also from a common root. 

 All of the eggs in the first group were infested by the larvae of some 

 unknown fly (Muscidac), also several eggs in the second group. This is 

 the first instance to the writer's knowledge of an insect attacking the 

 eggs of any of the Phalloids, although it is well known that various 

 species of flies (Muscidcc) eagerly suck the syrupy ma^s of spores as the 

 gleba deliouesccs 1 y this means the wider distribution of the spores is 

 accomplished: while tie passage through the digestive tube of the fly 

 may aid in the germination of the spores. A miscroscopic examination 

 of the excreta frcm tie flies that are feeding on the deliquescent gleba 

 shows it to be composed largely of spores, apparently unharmed. This 

 syrupy mass acts on them like a dose of salts, producing a kind of 

 diarrhoea. 



A third insect was found feeding on all the Phalloids except Siinbluin 

 texensc — a species of durg beetle or "tumble bug" {Gcotnipcs apacus 

 Hald.). The beetles first attack the stipe. One was found on the stipe 

 of Phallus inipv.dicus eating a circle around it, thereby cutting it down : 

 its mate was at the base of the plant, busily engaged in digging a hole 

 in the ground; when the stipe fell both beetles attacked it. 



This .species of dung beetle apparently makes no balls but digs holes 

 under the mass of dung on which they may be feeding. It is interesting 

 to note that the same ])rocess was followed while feeding on the Phalloids. 

 'ihey eat the stipe down to the ground but do not attack the volva; the 

 entire stipe and cap was often devoured so that nothing was left but the 

 stump of the stipe in the volva and the numerous holes that the beetles 

 had dug near by. I found specimens of Phallus ruhicuiidus. Phallus im- 

 pudicus, Mutiuus raninus, and Siinbluin sphacroccphahim, all attacked and 

 eaten by this beetle, hut strange to say. not one plant of the many speci- 

 mens found of Siinbluin tcxcnsc was eaten — probably because this plant 

 has not the foetid odour so characteristic nf iliis group. 



