29 



ing the appearance of a ruptured sporangium of the ordinary PenioilUum 

 glauca or Jfucor mucedo; hence I concluded that the cells were really 

 sporangia, filled with spores. So far I have discovered no traces of my- 

 celium, upon which these sporangia grow, and am thus led to conclude 

 that they multiply by fission — probably external gemmation — and that 

 after a sporangium is thus produced its contents are again divided by a pro- 

 cess of fission into numerous spores. As this process was not really seen 

 to take place, the foregoing remarks respecting it maybe taken as being- 

 theoretical; yet, while making my observations, and particularly upon 

 the slide treated with aniline green, I noticed a number of transparent 

 nucleated bodies, of various sizes, approaching that of the large spher- 

 ical cells, some of them exhibiting a slight, others a considerable, bulg- 

 ing out of the cell wall together with the contents of the cell. In some 

 of these, this bulging out had proceeded to a length equal to one-half 

 the diameter of the cell itself, and left one to infer that a new cell was 

 to be produced, and that, too, by a process of fission. Hence, my con- 

 elusions as before mentioned. This, together with quite a number of the 

 fully formed spherical bodies, was seen in material taken from a com- 

 plete, perfect male. It is only proper to state that in this case the con- 

 tents of the abdomen did not completely fill this cavity, and the ma- 

 terial was in rather a semi-liquid state and exhibited also immense num- 

 bers of minute spherical and rather long rod-shaped moving bodies 

 which were doubtless bacteria. These latter were also found in other 

 specimens in which the posterior segments were missing and the con- 

 tents of the abdomen, although of the mealy character, were yet some- 

 what moist, thus affording conditions for the growth and multiplication 

 of bacteria. Being curious to know what could be discovered in the 

 abdomen of a perfect and active male Cicada, I subjected some of the 

 material to examination with a one-quarter inch objective and a 2-inch 

 ocular and later with a 1-inch ocular. In the field of the microscope were 

 seen numerous flat bands, scattered about over and around each other 

 irregularly. In great numbers were seen also very fine hair-like fila- 

 ments which could be traced distinctly and were found to belong to t In- 

 flat bands. These latter were made up of a large number of hair-like 

 li laments arranged alongside of each other, which filaments emanated 

 from each other as fibers from a large thread ; each fiber preserving its 

 identity, and not being given off as a branch whose identity is lost in 

 its union with the main trunk. What these hair-like filaments really 

 were, I was unable to make out." 



I am satistied that the greater number of Cicadas which escape a 

 forcible death die from the effects of the fungus previously mentioned. 



As much time as possible was devoted to studying the enemies of the 

 Cicada. Not only those species which kill them, but also those species 

 which feed upon the dead insects were noted. Among birds the Eng- 

 lish sparrow, Passer domesticus. Leach, is perhaps its greatest enemy. 

 Within one week from the date of the appearance of the Cicada in 



