256 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 
strands, 8 cm. or more long, frequently branched. In that state the strands 
are usually sterile. A similar phenomenon occurs in the case of the common 
tropical Hirsutella on Hymenoptera, Hirsutella Saussurei, in which small 
clave, a few millimetres long, are fertile, but the conspicuous long black 
clave, 5 cm. or rnore long, are sterile. Several of these abnormal sterile 
forms of the new British species have been collected by Mr. Armstrong, 
but they could not be identified until the smaller fertile form was found. 
There is also a specimen in the Herbarium of the British Museum (Natural 
History), a fly (Blepharoptera serrata Fabr.) bearing long sterile hair-like 
clave, collected ‘in a stalactite cave,’ Yealhampton, Devon, June 1906, 
which can now be assigned to the new British species of Hirsutella. 
Only one normal unparasitised specimen of this Hirsutella occurs in 
Mr. Armstrong’s collections. 7 
Stilbella Kervillet (Quel.) Lingelsh—This species was described by 
Quelet from specimens, apparently parasitic on flies (Blepharoptera), found 
in caves in France. It has since been found in caves elsewhere on the 
Continent. Mr. Armstrong’s specimens, first found in the Creswell Caves 
in 1923 and recorded by Mr. F. A. Mason in Journal of Botany, August 
1931, pp. 205-207, were the first to be found in Britain. More recently 
several examples have been collected by Mr. Armstrong in Pin Hole Cave. 
Quelet described his species as having a simple white stalk and a yellow 
globose head, but with brown mycelium on the body of the insect, an un- 
usual difference in colour. Mr. Armstrong’s first specimens agreed with 
Quelet’s description, but in the examples from Pin Hole Cave many were 
apparently branched, up to twenty Stilbella fructifications occurring as 
short lateral branches of a long central stalk. On examination it was found 
that the central stem was really a Hirsutella clave, and that the brown 
mycelium on the insect was Hirsutella mycelium, bearing typical Hirsutella 
conidiophores and conidial clusters. 
Thus Mr. Armstrong’s specimens demonstrate that Stilbella Kervillei 
is not parasitic on insects, as was supposed, but is parasitic on another 
fungus, a Hirsutella, the latter being entomogenous. 
As far as is known, neither Stilbella Kervillei nor the Hirsutella have been 
found except in caves. 
Spicaria (Isaria) farinosa (Holms) Fr.—The large majority of the speci- 
mens from Pin Hole Cave consists of gnats, each enveloped in a greyish 
loose ball of mycelium. ‘This mycelium bears a scanty growth of Spicaria 
conidiophores. On taking this into culture, the fungus proved to be 
Spicaria (Isaria) farinosa, the common Isaria of Lepidoptera in this country. 
Sporotrichum Isarie Petch.—Some of the balls of mycelium on the gnats 
are pale brown. ‘This colour is due to the growth on them of another fungus, 
Sporotrichum Isarie, which is parasitic on Spicaria (Isaria) farinosa. This 
fungus has been found previously in Yorkshire, Norfolk and Sussex. 
Beauveria Bassiana (Bals.) Vuill—This common entomogenous fungus 
was found on one fly from Pin Hole Cave. It is generally distributed 
throughout the world, and is the cause of the disease of silkworms known as 
Muscardine. 
THE RODENT REMAINS FROM THE PIN HOLE Cave. 
By J. Witrrip Jackson, D.Sc., F.G.S. 
The rodent remains obtained by Mr. A. Leslie Armstrong, F.S.A., 
from the section excavated during 1933-34 readily fall into two main 
groups, a lower and an upper, according to the levels from which they 
come. ‘Those submitted from the Lower Rodent-level, viz. 10 ft. to 
