A Singular Cordyceps from Stephen Island. 75 
Under the Maori name of wefa, and the extremely incorrect 
titles of ‘“scorpion”’ or ‘‘scorpena,’’ one or other of the commoner 
species is a familiar object to most people. The species under 
discussion belongs to an endemic genus. The type is said to 
have been discovered in an underground burrow at Wanganui; 
but the species is not now known to me to occur at any locality 
on the mainland. The two affected specimens, a female with 
numerous stromata, and a male, were taken under stones by 
’ Prof. H. B. Kirk at Stephen Island in Cook Strait where these 
huge wetas are still fairly common and form, in spite of their 
heavy armature of spines and plates, a portion of the food of 
the tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus Gray. The insect also occurs 
on Mana Island, and may possibly frequent other islets in Cook 
Strait. 
Cordyceps Kirkti sp.nov. 
Statuo conidiale cum statuo peritheciale, superficiem hospitis 
storea densa mycelii contegente, ravo-pallido-flavo, pruinoso; 
conidiis hyalinis, ellipticis, 3-6 « I-I-5 wp. 
Stromatibus congregatis, ex membranis intersegmentalibus 
corporis, et ex genibus, basibus antennarum et oculorum et in 
femoribus crescentibus; stipitatis, brevibus, ad 6 mm. longis. 
Stipite ad 4 mm. longo, I mm. crasso, ravo-pallido-flavo. Parte 
fertile inaequaliter globosa, ovata vel saepe angulifera, ali- 
quando in longitudinem striata, 1-5-2 x 1-5 mm. crassa, pallido- 
brunnea. 
Peritheciis externis, ellipticis vel elongato-oblongis, obtusis, 
dense confertis, pallido-brunneis, 700-800 x 150-170; apice 
crasso ad 120, muris crassis 20-25 ». Ascis hyalinis, angusto- 
cylindraceis, pedicello breve clavato terminatis, infra apicem 
capitatam non constricto, 165-210 x 5-6 ». Sporidiis in fasciculis 
tortuosis in ascibus, filiformibus, cylindraceis, multiseptatis, 
80-120 x I-I'5; sporidiis secundariis non distinguendis in 
ascibus, 6 x I-I°'5 p. 
Has.: in imaginibus Deinacridae rugosae Buller (Orthoptera). 
Stephen Island, Cook Strait, Nov. Zeal. H. B. Kirk. Jan. 1922. 
