NOTE ON THE ASCOSPORIC CONDITION OF THE GENUS 
ASCHERSONIA MONTAGNE* 
ROLAND THAXTER 
(WITH SEVEN FIGURES) 
The genus Aschersonia includes a group of entomogenous fungi 
which have hitherto found a place among the Sphaeropsideae, 
. since, as far as I am aware, no ascosporic condition has as yet been 
observed in connection with any of them. Although a great 
majority of the forty or more species which have been described, 
for the most part from the tropics, are said to occur on the leaves, 
etc., of various hosts. among the vascular plants, there can be no 
question in the mind of anyone who has had an opportunity to 
examine them in a fresh condition that they are strictly entomoge- 
nous, like the species of the genus Hypocrella, which have a simi- 
lar habitat on various types of scale insects; and, as is well known, 
two species of the genus have been successfully employed in Florida 
against certain scales attacking Citrus. As in the case of other 
entomogenous fungi, the character of the host plant on which species 
of Aschersonia have been reported is thus a matter of very little 
importance, except in so far as it may suggest the nature of the 
scale which has been attacked while feeding on it. Although it Is 
not improbable that some of the species are not restricted to 
closely similar hosts, there are indications that others are more 
definitely conditioned in this respect, and an examination of this 
matter from the entomological side is much to be desired. Unfor- 
tunately, very little information is available in this connection, and 
the actual hosts of the too numerous and ill defined species, a maJol 
ity of which have been described within the past fifteen yea™ 
are, with a very few exceptions, quite unknown. 
In view of the general characteristics of Aschersonia, it has 
been naturally assumed that the ascosporic form, if it exists, would 
find a place among the Hypocreaceae, the often bright thous 
very variable and inconstant colors and comparatively soft co” 
> 
if Po, a » f. a rs rite aes se . etr. 1 Tiniversityv. LXIl. 
7 
Botanical Gazette, vol. 37] [308 
