116 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1283 



This is the most recent of the series of 

 monographs of small groups of vertebrate 

 animals issued by the Boston Society of Nat- 

 ural History from time to tim^e. The seven- 

 teen species of turtles recorded as native to 

 ISTew England are taken up in order and 

 described, size, color, form, distribution, 

 numbers, breeding, food, enemies, economic 

 importance. The plates comprise careful color 

 drawings by E. Decker and J. Henry Blake, 

 of all but the marine leather-back, loggerhead 

 and green turtles, and photographs of these 

 three. The illustrations facilitate the identi- 

 fication of the different turtles, supply the 

 best existing figures of certain comparatively 

 little-known species and, as representative of 

 !N^ew England material, will be valuable for 

 reference to faunal herpetologists. There are 

 several pages of bibliography of references 

 cited. Of the seventeen species of turtles 

 treated, four are marine, one littoral, one al- 

 most strictly terrestrial, one strictly aquatic, 

 and ten more or less amphibious. Exclu- 

 sive of the naarine species, six are rare or 

 local in New England, the remaining seven 

 being the snapping turtle, musk turtle, painted 

 turtle, diamond-backed terrapin, spotted tur- 

 tle, wood tortoise and box tortoise. 



This publication will be welcomed by the 

 students of the fauna of New England and 

 herpetologists in general, but it should have 

 a much wider circulation. Ability to refer to 

 it will add to the pleasure which every New 

 England child may be expected to find in 

 turtles. The turtle is one of the most strik- 

 ing of nature's phenomena and the correlation 

 of its remarkable structure with its habits has 

 much popular interest. A careful considera- 

 tion of the life-histories of the different 

 species is a feature of Dr. Babcock's work. 

 Erom the quotations it is noticeable how 

 many interesting things about turtles have 

 only recently come to light and we are im- 

 pressed with the probability that others as 

 interesting remain to be found out. 



In conclusion, a word should be said of the 

 thorough investigation of the New England 

 fauna by the Boston Society of Natural His- 



tory of which this paper is a detail. Larger 

 institutions are often absorbed by distant prob- 

 lems and work of this nature is much needed 

 to keep the study of natural history well 

 balanced. 



J. T. Nichols 

 American Museum op Natural History 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



THE FUNGUS PARASITE OF THE PERIODICAL 

 CICADA 



The fungus Massospora cicadina. Peck has 

 been extremely prevalent about "Washington, 

 D. C, during the recent reappearance of 

 Brood X of Cicada septendecim. It was first 

 collected in the conidial stage of development 

 on May 31, or about ten days after the first 

 emergence of the insect in this locality. 

 Until June 7, however, it was not abundant, 

 it being possible to collect only a dozen or so 

 infected cicadas in an afternoon, and during 

 this period only the conidial stage of the 

 fungus was found. On June 10, however, fol- 

 lowing a wet period of a few days, the organ- 

 ism appeared in the resting spore condition 

 and since this date has become increasingly 

 prevalent until, at the present time, from five 

 to nine out of every ten live adult males col- 

 lected will show the resting spores of the 

 fungus in some stage of development. On 

 the other hand, infected insects showing 

 conidia are rarely found now. 



It appears from the observations made thus 

 far that conidia and resting spores of Masso- 

 spora cicadina are not formed simultaneously 

 in tlje same insect, and infected individuals 

 bearing only conidia of the fungus present a 

 somewhat different gross appearance from 

 those insects in which resting spores exclu- 

 sively are produced. 



In the conidial stage of development the 

 fungus is usually exposed to view, due to the 

 sloughing off of several of the posterior ab- 

 dominal segments of the host's body, as a 

 white or pale cream colored more or less co- 

 herent mass which is found to arise in the 

 male hosts at least from a cushion-like sub- 

 stratum, the latter forming a more or less 

 complete septum extending across the entire 



