004 
. MOXOGRAPII OF THE LABOULBENIACE^. 
The transfer of tlie spores fi 
host to 
probably accomplished 
a r 
never 
,by the direct contact of two insects; as, for example, during coitus, perhap 
otlierwise in the aquatic species, as might be inferred from the remarkable con 
:y with which some of these forms occur in definite positions on the elytra or else 
O' O 
but may doubtless be otherwise effected, at least m 
us hosts inhabit or hide during the day in moderately 
mor 
Und 
such insects have come 
probable that spores discharged upon materials with whicl 
contact may subsequently adhere to other individuals oi 
1 
wliicl 
1 
ey may develop. Although a gelatinous envelope is always a p 
f 
ry efficacy 
d 
not seem probable that the spores can retain their 
power of germination for any considerable time, at least in a dry condition. 
Having reached a proper host, and having adhered to it by virtue of its generally 
viscous character, the spore begins to germinate at once. 
Germination. The first indication of germination in the spore usually consists in 
the modification of its lower extremity into a blackened organ of attachment, ihQ foot ; 
the blackening resulting from a change which takes place in the gelatinous envelope 
in this region by which it becomes converted into a black, opaque, hardened, more or 
less elastic medium of attachment to the host. This conversion of the lower portion 
of the basal spore segment into an indurated organ by which the growing plant ad- 
heres firmly to the substratum on which it grows, is apparently unconnected with any 
efTect resulting from contact with the chitin of the insect; since^ in exceptional in- 
stances^ where the usual discharge of spores has been prevented from any causC; the 
lattefj while still within the perithecium^ may begin to germinate and even attain an 
advanced development (Plate V, figs. 1 and 19). In such cases the first step in the 
process consists, as in normal germination, in the formation of a blackened foot of the 
usual type. A foot of this nature is not, however, invariably present. If the figures 
of Peyritsch are to be relied upon, there is no such blackening in the case of Helmin- 
thophana (Plate VIII, fig. 10), which is represented as penetrating the integument of 
the insect on whicli it grows by the intrusion of a papillate haustorium, there 
being no blackening whatever of the basal cell. The typical foot is also conspicu- 
ously absent in certain other genera. In Moschomyces also, to which reference has 
been made above, this organ is not differentiated ; and the plant penetrates the soft 
integument by means of a cellular haustorium which, expanding within the body cav- 
ity of the host, holds the parasite firmly attached. The most striking exception, 
however, is presented by the genus Ehizomyces, in which the penetrating haustorium 
renches a development quite beyond that of any other form. In this case (Plate 
1 
