296 



THAXTER. MONOGRAPH OF THE LABOULBENIACE^. 



Dioicomyces obliqueseptatus Thaxter. Plate XLII, figs. 1G-17. 

 Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sci., Vol. XXXVII, p. 33. June, 1901. Amorphomyces obliqueseptatus Thaxter, 1. c, 



Vol. XXXV, p. 431. April, 1900. 



Male individual, unknown. 



Female individual, straw colored tinged with amber-brown. The perithecium broadly inflated at 

 the base, becoming gradually narrower distally, the tip broad blunt asymmetrical; the apex somewhat 

 oblique, the asci and spores in great numbers, filling the perithecium and developed from a single ascogenic 

 cell. Spores obliquely septate, 40 X 7 fi. Perithecium 200 X 55-60 a. 



On the antennae of an undetermined staphylinid perhaps near Myrmedonia, British Museum No. 

 398, Ega, Amazon River. 



This form is undoubtedly a species of Dioicomyces as is indicated by its obliquely septate spores, 

 and it is evident that practically the whole of the receptacle was broken off when the specimens were 

 removed from the host. It is needless to say that the species would not have been described had this 

 been evident at the time of its publication. Although thus based on a perithecium merely, w r ith its stalk- 

 cell and an adherent fragment of the receptacle, there should be no difficulty in its future recognition. 

 The host was a very peculiar staphylinid among the Miscellanea in the British Museum, and was nearly 

 allied to Myrmedonia. 



SMERINGOMYCES nov. gen. 

 Male (?) individual: bristle-like consisting of several superposed cells. 



Female ( ?) individual. Receptacle consisting of three or four superposed cells bearing a single 

 terminal perithecium, the subbasal cell subtended by a bristle-like appendage, the cells above it also bear- 

 ing similar appendages. Perithecium appendiculate, its cavity becoming continuous with that of the 

 stalk-cell. 



The type of this genus was provisionally placed in Rhachomyces, but there can be no doubt as to its 

 distinctness, although it resembles it in possessing a receptacle consisting of superposed cells bearing 

 bristle-like appendages. There being no other genus in which it can be even provisionally placed, I have 

 reluctantly made a new one for its reception, although an adequate diagnosis is as yet impossible owing 

 to a lack of any knowledge as to its antheridial characters. The form is rare and at the same time very 

 minute, and I have as yet been unable to obtain young material in sufficient quantities to determine what 

 these antheridial characters are. In all cases where this could be determined, the perithecigerous indi- 

 vidual has been accompanied by a small bristle-like individual developed from the other member of the 

 spore pair. This may represent an atrophied condition of an hermaphrodite individual, or may be a 

 male. I have in no case seen paired normal individuals, which if they occurred, would indicate that the 

 spores were not different in a given pair. The small individual resembles very closely the primary bristle- 

 like appendage of the normal type, but possesses a very small foot. It is so opaque that I have found 

 it impossible in the material examined to determine whether there is any structure which might be inter- 

 preted as an antheridium. It is also true that in no normal individual have I seen anything that could 

 be similarly interpreted ; yet in either case, owing to the small size and opacity of the structures involved, 

 an antheridium might be present and yet be visible only in especially favorable individuals. That it is 

 probably a unisexual type is indicated by the peculiar characters of its perithecium, the absorption of 

 the basal cells of the latter, which results in making its cavity continuous with that of the stalk-cell, being a 

 phenomenon seen only in dicecious genera. For this reason and in the absence of definite information 

 to the contrary I have placed the genus provisionally in its present connection. 



The youngest individual examined consists of four superposed cells terminated by a primary bristle- 

 like appendage which seems to correspond to the appendage which at maturity occupies a position at the 

 base of the perithecium. The third cell appears to produce appendages distally, and the fourth to give 

 rise to the perithecium and the rest of the appendages, but the series of specimens is not complete enough 

 to determine these matters with exactness. The axis is thus not of secondary origin as in Rhachomyces. 



