CORDYCEPS MELOLONTHAE, FROM DR. M. S. WHET- 

 STONE, MINNESOTA. (Fig. 724.) This is our largest and not 

 rare species of Cordyceps, though our figure is made from a small, 

 young specimen. It grows in the West Indies, and is 

 more frequent in the Southern United States. The 

 original reference was based on young, undeveloped 

 specimens, such as this one from Dr. Whetstone, and 

 its identity has not been recognized in any of the recent 

 works on Cordyceps. It passes in 

 American tradition as Cordyceps 

 herculea, based on Schweinitz's record 

 of Sphaeria herculea, which turned 

 out to be a "puff-ball" (sic) not, a 

 "Sphaeria" at all. (Cfr. Note 98, 

 Letter 47.) I have long known that Fi fl- 722 



it could not be Schweinitz's species, 

 for I knew his specimen was not a 



Cordyceps, but I had no name for the species until my last trip 

 to Kew, when I found Cooke had named it Cordyceps insignis. 



A perfect specimen of Cordyceps melolonthae under the name 

 Torubia herculea is given by Hard, figure 491. Such symmetrical 

 specimens are rarely developed. Usually the heads are imperfect, and 

 many specimens are collected young, before the fertile portion begins 

 to form. 



The first notice of this species appears to have been by Jacob 

 Cist in 1824 in an account of the May bug. He figures the bug and 

 its larva, and states that it is not unusual to find attached to the 

 larva a number of "vegetable sprouts." He figures these "sprouts," 

 and the figure is an evident attempt to illustrate a young growth of 

 this Cordyceps. Tulasne, in his monograph of Cordyceps (or Torubia, 

 as he called it), named the figure Torubia Melolonthae, though Tulasne 

 never saw a specimen. 



The host is the larva of the May bug or "June bug," as it is also 

 called. It is a large, white larva with a brown head, known as the 

 "white grub," and often a pest of the farmers, living on roots of 

 grass, corn, etc., and causing considerable damage. Formerly it was 

 put in the genus Melolontha, though in the current, entomological 

 books it is classed as Lachnosterna fusca. 



BOTRYTIS (SP.), FROM B. T. HARVEY, COLORADO. 



(Fig. 723.) A white mold growing on the larva of Colloides nobilis, 

 which is a round head borer in dead 

 roots of scrub white oak. The Botrytis 

 forms a white mold with numerous mi- 

 Fj 723 nute, globose, hyaline spores l>-2 mic. 



Botrytis. m diameter. On cutting the larva, I 



find the inside a complete sclerotium , and 



I doubt not that this Botrytis is a preliminary stage of some Cordy- 

 ceps. As we have no species of Cordyceps recorded from this host, I 

 hope Professor Harvey will keep a close watch for the Cordyceps form. 



53 



