1916] 
BURT—THELEPHORACEAE OF NORTH AMERICA. VII 321 
fixed and preserved for a cytological study of Septobasidium 
during spore production. Discussion of the systematic rela- 
tionships of Septobasidium may well await the completion 
of such study. 
The species of Septobasidium are tropical or subtropical. 
Extreme northern stations, based on specimens examined 
by the writer, are London, Ontario, Canada, and Madison, 
Wisconsin—both are stations for S. pseudopedicellatum, 
which is the most frequent species of the United States. 
With regard to the biology of Septobasidium, several speci- 
mens of this genus—usually of S. pseudopedicellatum—have 
been noted by their respective collectors as occurring espe- 
cially on plants badly affected by scale insects. Other speci- 
mens show scale insects numerous about the fructification 
and overrun by it. Petch! in a note on the biology of Sep- 
tobasidium states that from examination of a long series of 
specimens, it has been determined that these fungi are par- 
asitie on colonies of scale insects which they overgrow and 
destroy completely, and that these fungi live, not on secre- 
tions of the insects, but upon the insects themselves. 
In addition to independent observations on the association 
of Septobasidium with scale insects, other facts tending to 
show an entomogenous adaptation of Septobasidiwm are the 
following: 
(1) All species of Septobasidium known to the writer 
occur only on living branches or leaves, and in no instance 
has there been penetration by the fungus through the epi- 
dermis or bark into the living tissues of the substratum, 
or any injury or deformation or gall response by the branch 
or leaf. 
(2) Spores are produced by S. pseudopedicellatum, in the 
region from North Carolina and Alabama to Porto Rico, in 
May when young colonies of the scale insects are forming. 
Mr. Seagle wrote to me that the old fructifications of S. 
pseudopedicellatum disappear from his apple trees in North 
Carolina in late spring and in early summer, and new fruc- 
'Ann. Bot. 25:843. 1911. 
