June 1^ 1865.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Lc3 



INSECT MOULDS. 



(Saprolcgnia ferax.) 



Ox A Dead Spider in Water. — A descrip- 

 of a fuugus, -wliicli I observed last autumu 

 upon a dead spider in water, may not be unin- 

 teresting to the readers of Science Gossip. It 

 consisted of a mass of white filaments, from the 

 eighth to a quarter of an inch in length. Upon 

 examination under the microscope, these were re- 

 solved into two sets; one long and filamentous 

 (figs. 1, 2), the other slightly branching, with spores 

 either contained in spherical sacs, or arranged in 

 lines in the interior of the filament (fig. 5). The 

 former, which seem to be the male filaments," are at 

 first filled towards the extremity with finely granu- 

 lated matter (fig. 1). This, after a time, appears to 

 break up, and develope into androsporcs, which are 

 gathered together in a separate cell at the end of 

 the filament. When the spores are ripe, the end 



* These are not male filaments, lut produce zoospores, and 

 not a^ldro^poref, as supposed, — Ed. S, G. 



gives way, and they escape. If one of these be 

 burst by pressure, the contents which escape seem 

 to consist of finely granulated matter, similar to that 

 in the filaments. The other set of filaments exhibit 

 a somewhat similar mode of growth. The cell-wall 

 bulges out on one side, until a pear-shaped sac is 

 formed, which, when filled with the granular matter, is 

 shut ofi" by a cell-wall, and the contents are gradually 

 developed into circular spores, somewht larger than 

 the spores of the other filaments. 



On a Dead Fly in Water.— I observed 

 a very similar, if not the very same species of 

 fungus upon a dead fly in water. Figs. 6 to 9 

 show diflereut stages in the development of the 

 spores. When mature, they exhibit small radicles, 

 which penetrate the wall of the sac. It seems 

 probable that the spores increase witiiin the sac by 

 ccU-divison, since some of them (figs. 11, 12) have 

 double nuclei, J- S. T, 



