Studies in Entomogenous Fungi. T. Pefch. 113 



the same time, the contents of the neck of the perithecimn may- 

 be forced through the ostiolum, and these may issue in the form 

 of a continuous sheet in which the periphyses are clearly- dis- 

 tinct. It would appear from these observations that the 

 amorphous mass is formed by the disintegration of the inner 

 layer of the wall of the perithecium, not from a peripheral zone 

 of paraphj'ses. 



Boudier described the apex of the cLscus as rounded and 

 "non-tumente." The apex of the ascus in the species available 

 to me is capitate, as in Cordyceps and Hypocrella, i.e. it is strongly 

 thickened, \\ith a more or less transverse base. In the original 

 descriptions of T. tomentosa, T. rubra, and T. ochracea, the apex 

 is described as capitate; in T. rostrata, as tunicate; in T. luteo- 

 rostrata, as thickly tunicate; in T. brunnea, as thickened; and in 

 T. sericicola, as a hemispherical slime cap, 3/z broad. Tranzschel 

 stated that in Hchninthascus arachnophthorus the apex of the 

 ascus was thickened, while Raciborski described that of Barya 

 montana as thick-waUed and conical. 



The perithecium in the available specimens of TorrubicUa is 

 usually elongated conoid, or elongated flask-shaped, in the 

 latter case ^^ith a comparatively long neck, which in the dried 

 specimens often becomes recurved or irregularly bent, as noted 

 by Zimmermann in T. luteorostrata, and by Hennings in T. ros- 

 trata. The perithecium is usually clothed for about two-thirds 

 its height with hyphae, arising both from the stroma and the 

 wall of the perithecium. If this covering is removed, the wall, 

 when mounted, is found to be composed of interwoven hyphae, 

 which form a parenchymiatous tissue, but run more or less 

 circumferential!}^ round the perithecium. Probably because of 

 that, the perithecia readily break transversely; and old her- 

 barium specimens may have lost the upper part of the neck 

 (and hence exhibit a "\\idely open ostiolum"). or may retain 

 only the cup-shaped base of the perithecium. The inner layer 

 of the perithecium wall is usually thick, hyaline, and obscure 

 in structure. 



On Lepidoptera and Arachnida, TorrubicUa usually permeates 

 the body of the insect and clothes it with a weft of h^^hae ; and 

 the perithecia are produced on this weft, embedded in it to 

 various depths up to about two-thirds their height, or on parts 

 of the insect which do not show any superficial mycelium, except 

 a sHght weft at the base of the perithecium. On scale in«:ects, 

 these fungi similarly permeate the host insect, and then form 

 over it a stroma of loosely interwoven h\^hae, which ma\- be 

 pulvinate, up to 3 mm. in diameter, with a broad, spreading 

 hypothallus. The perithecia may be borne on the stroma, or 

 at its margin on the hypothaUus, or an\nvhere on the hypo- 



M.S. S 



