TIIAXTKIt. — MONOGRAPH OK TING LAIJOULBKNI ACK.K. 



289 



slightly; the tip subtended by a blunt pointed spine-like projection, directed nearly at right angles to tlic 

 axis of the free tip. Primary receptacle about 25 /« long. Secondary receptacle 20 X 10 /<. Peril liecium, 

 to tip of process, about 80-100 X 15-20 ft. 



On antennae of PhyUodromia sp., Abyssinia; Scudder Collection, No. 1381. 



This is a small and rather insignificant species of which the material is not very abundant. Though 

 resembling //. Anaplcrtw in some respects, and like it in possessing a very small secondary receptacle, 

 the spinose tip of the latter and the very simple male individuals recall the conditions seen in //. Zanzi- 

 harinus. It is unlike other species owing to the slight divergence of the paired perithecia and their strong 

 tendency to bend outward from the substratum. An examination of more abundant material may show 

 that the male individual is not in all cases so simple as in the individual represented in fig. 2. 



Herpomyces Ectopia Thaxter. Plate XXXIX, figs. 11 10. 

 Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Scl, Vol. XXXVIII, p. 20. June, 1902. 



Male individual consisting of four superposed cells terminated by the characteristic blackish pro- 

 jection, the distal cells producing a dense appressed tuft of coherent antheridial branchlets and anthcrdia; 

 the subbasal cell usually giving rise to a fertile branch, simple or furcate, which produces secondary male 

 receptacles consisting of irregularly double straggling series of cells, some of which are sterile, while others 

 bear short-stalked, unilateral, dense antheridial tufts similar to the primary one (which may sometimes 

 be lacking?). 



Female individual colorless. Primary receptacle as in the male, terminated by two short cells, the 

 upper of which bears distally the characteristic blackish minute foot-like projection, the subbasal cell 

 producing a simple or furcate fertile branch. The fertile receptacles, like those of the male, often creeping 

 extensively, consisting of an irregularly double series of obliquely seriate cells, sterile or fertile without 

 definite sequence, the whole plant producing sometimes twelve or even more perithecia, developed as a 

 rule in irregularly acropetal succession. Perithecia subsessile, inflated below, attenuated above, the 

 extremity bent or sometimes slightly recurved, the apex unmodified. Spores 20 X 2.5 ji. Perithecia, 

 including base, 80-90 X 20 fi. Total length of secondary receptacle, longer, 200-225 X 15 fi. Pri- 

 mary individual 22 u. 



On Ectobia Germanica Scudd., Cambridge, Mr. Billiard. On Ectobia sp., Zanzibar; Mus. Comp. 

 Zool., No. 1357: St. Kitts, West Indies; Mus. Comp. Zool., No. 1361. 



Since repent males and females usually grow together, the antheridia and perithecia often appear to 

 arise from one plant, but this is never the actual condition. The species can hardly be confused with 

 any other, unless perhaps with H. Anaplectw, to which it is most nearly allied; but from which it may 

 be distinguished by the repent habit in both sexes, and by the shape of the perithecia. The species is 

 doubtless as widely distributed as is its cosmopolitan host, the common "water bug" or "Croton bug" 

 well known to housewives. 



Herpomyces Anaplect.e Thaxter. Plate XXXIX, figs. 9-10. 

 Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sci., Vol. XLI, p. 309. July, 1905. 



Male individual consisting of four superposed cells, the two or three upper ones becoming variably 

 branched, and bearing a variable number of antheridia on the branchlets; the subbasal cell apparently 

 in some cases producing one or two small secondary receptacles, each of which bears an irregular tuft of 

 antheridia. Total length, including antheridia, 35-50 p.. Antheridia 24 X 2 /£. 



Female individual hyaline. Primary receptacle mostly 4-celled, the distal cell at first long, conical, 

 mucronate, becoming more or less collapsed and irregular at maturity; the subbasal giving rise to a branch 

 from which are formed a pair of small secondary receptacles, each producing a single perithecium; the 

 two symmetrically placed, and symmetrically curved away from the axis of the primary receptacle. Peri- 

 thecium long, slender, tapering from below the middle to its attenuated apex; the transverse boundaries 

 of the wall-cells often indicated in the middle region by more or less distinct elevations, the apex unmodi- 



