172 MYCOLOGY 



Roland Thaxter and J. Faull. They are parasitic on insects, mostly 

 beetles, which live in moist situations and are long-Uved and hiber- 

 nating. They are often highly specialized, as to the parts of the 

 insect on which they grow, occurring only on certain joints of the legs 

 and on certain legs of the host. The vegetative myceUum is very much 

 reduced, consisting of one to a few cells, which are attached to the body 

 of the insect and their usually minute size renders them difficult of 

 study. The host is not destroyed nor even inconvenienced by these 

 fungi which appear as minute, usually dark-colored, yellowish bristles 

 or bushy hairs projecting from the chitinous integument of the insect. 

 Stigmatomyces Bmri lives parasitically on house flies. The bicellu- 

 lar spore with its mucilaginous coat becomes attached at its lower end. 

 The upper cell develops an appendage which bears a number of unicel- 

 lular flask-shaped antheridia from which the naked spermatia are shed. 

 The lower cell divides into four cells which represent the female repro- 

 ductive organ, where the carpogonium, or egg cell develops a trichogyne 

 to which the spermatia become attached. The three fundamental parts 

 of which these plants are composed are a main body, the receptacle; 

 one or more spore-producing portions, the perithecia; and lastly, one or 

 more appendages which, in the majority of cases, are associated with 

 the formation of the male sexual organs. The receptacle is that por- 

 tion of the fungus on which the appendages together with the perithe- 

 cia, or their stalk cells, are inserted. The sterile appendages, which 

 form dense tufts and sometimes are more conspicuous than the main 

 plant itself, serve to protect the delicate trichogyne which is subse- 

 quently developed. Sometimes, the primary appendage develops a 

 spine-hke process. The male organs and male elements in the Laboul- 

 BENiACE^ may be designated as antheridia and antherozoids, the former 

 consisting of a single antheridia! cell or a group of such cells, the latter 

 of a single naked, or thin-walled cell, so that the antherozoids are pro- 

 duced either endogenously or exogenously. Among the antheridia 

 which produce endogenous antherozoids we may distinguish the 

 simple and the compound. A simple antheridium discharges its 

 antherozoids through its special pore or opening, the compound an- 

 theridium consists of several antheridial cells each of which. dis- 

 charges its contents into a common cavity from which they es- 

 cape. The female organs are formed from a segment of the lower 

 cell of the receptacle rarely from the terminal cell. The perithe- 



