2 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [January 



may serve to make clear their significance. The Laboulbeniales, 

 being a microcosm in themselves, need no apologist; since, despite 

 their unsolved origin, their general position in the fungus series is 

 perfectly clear, except possibly to a few Brefeldians; and, once 

 they have originated, their extraordinary development is quite in- 

 telligible. With our present knowledge as a guide, however, the 

 same can hardly be said of the other external fungus-parasites of 

 living insects included in this and in my previous paper 2 on the 

 same subject. Even in the case of genera like Muiogone and 

 Muiaria, the similarity of which to well known types is manifest, 

 it would be very difficult satisfactorily to explain their manifestly 

 unsuccessful mode of life, the disadvantages of which seem clearly 

 indicated by their rarity, both as regards individuals and species. 

 While such forms may be looked upon rather as outcasts from 

 their proper groups, however, there are others, like Coreomycetopsis, 

 the Thaxteriolae, and Enterobryae, which must be regarded as 

 essentially isolated. 



This assemblage of species has been obtained from various 

 parts of the world, on insects belonging to numerous different 

 genera of the Coleoptera, Diptera, Orthoptera, and Neuroptera, 

 the most curious forms having been found on Termites, already a 



* 



classic ground for the parisitologist. Although the first, Cantharo- 

 sphaeria, which is a true ascomycete, may perhaps prove to be, in a 

 sense, saprophytic, with no very definite relation to the vital 

 activities of its host, this can hardly be said of any of the others, 

 the life of which is evidently thus conditioned. Termitaria, 

 Muiogone, Muiaria, and Aposporella belong to the Fungi Imperfecti; 

 the first referable in an artificial way to the Leptostromaceae, but 

 quite isolated in its characters; the last, one of the Mucedineae, 

 belonging to a group which includes a number of forms as yet 

 unpublished, having a similar mode of life, and characterized by an 

 absence of differentiated spores, among which the species herewith 

 illustrated is, in some respects, the most striking. Muiogone and 

 Muiaria, of which species have been previously described, belong 

 to the Dematiae. The position of all the remaining forms, however, 

 is problematical, and, although from its cytological characters 



*Bot. Gaz. 58:235-253. pis. i6-iq. 1914. 



