134 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



make the following quotation from a letter received concerning it. 

 " On two successive days this month, May 1907, I have collected 

 on my lawn in Patterson, N. J. a double handful of Morchella 

 d e 1 i c i o s a , bad them cooked and have eaten them with the result 

 that they were quite as palatable as the common mushroom." Un- 

 fortunately the species is not very common and, like other morels, 

 its time of occurrence is limited to a short period early in the 

 season. 



Polyporus volvatus Pk. 



This singular species of polyporus inhabits the trunks of various 

 coniferous trees. It emerges from holes made in the bark by insect 

 borers. While young, the pores, from which the spores drop, are 

 concealed by a thin prolongation of the exterior coat of the pileus, 

 which forms a continuous membrane beneath them. In due time 

 the central part of this membrane opens in a circular aperture and 

 reveals the mouths of the pores and the heaps of pinkish spores 

 that have fallen from them and lodged on the inner surface of the 

 membrane about the aperture. Small insects are often found inside 

 the wrapper and apparently feeding on the spores. In some speci- 

 mens of the polyporus received early in the season small holes were 

 observed in the wrapper and insects were found in the cavity dusted 

 with and evidently feeding on the spores, for there was no evidence 

 of their having eaten or bored into the substance of the fungus. 

 The appearance indicated that the borers had eaten one or two holes 

 through the wrapper before its aperture had been formed and that 

 they had thereby gained entrance to the storehouse of spores on 

 which they were feeding. In the examples in which the insects 

 were found within specimens with no small apertures in the wrapper 

 it is clear that they gained entrance through the larger natural aper- 

 ture. It is possible that one purpose of the visit of the insects is 

 to deposit eggs within the fungus, for this species of- polyporus is 

 one specially liable to be quickly destroyed by insect larvae develop- 

 ing within. Here appears to be a peculiar case of mutual benefit 

 between insect and fungus. The insect bores holes through the 

 bark of the tree. Through these holes the spores of the fungus 

 have access to the sapwood of the tree and through them also the 

 mycelium of the fungus finds an exit to the external light and air 

 where it forms the fruiting body and develops its spores. These in 

 turn furnish food and a place for propagation to insects. 



