68 



Mycologia 



stage has been observed, and although specimens of the other 

 parasitized hosts at hand are much more limited in number, an 

 acigerous stage has not been observed in connection with any of 

 them. While therefore it is probably true that these forms are 

 the imperfect stages of Cordyceps or an illied type, the condi- 

 tion that is likely to be met with in the future is that mentioned 

 above. This is deemed by the writer as sufficient reason for 

 describing the following imperfect stages, and although recogniz- 

 ing their probable relation to Cordyceps it seems advisable for 

 the present to retain the name Hirsutella for the genus, members 

 of which are unlike any other described entomogenous forms 

 known to the writer, although in accepting this name care should 

 be taken not to associate it with the Basidiomycetes, with which 

 it evidently is in no way connected. The genus Hirsutella should 

 be looked upon in the same manner as is Gibellula and other 

 genera that have been removed from the composite genus Isaria, 

 and in accordance with this conception the following description 

 may be given. 



Hirsutella Pat. 



Fruiting bodies in the form of simple or branched, long, erect, 

 slender and rigid, or short verruciform synnemata composed of 

 more or less parallel septate hyphae. Sporophores simple, sessile 

 or subsessile, subulate, the distal portion extremely long and 

 attenuated and sharply set off from the swollen or inflated basal 

 portion. Spores adjointed singly from the tips of the sporo- 

 phores, fusoid, allantoid or cylindrical in form, hyaline, one- 

 celled, their true shape obscured by a gelatinous substance which 

 surrounds and renders them citriform in appearance. 



The specimens in the writer's possession are clearly separable 

 into five species, which are distinguished from one another largely 

 on the characters of the spores and sporophores. 



i. Hirsutella entomophila Pat. 



Entomogenous. Synnemata arising directly from the body of 

 the host 5-15 mm. long, much branched, rigid, often spirally 

 twisted, brownish in color, sometimes fasciculate with their bases 

 coalescing. Sporophores simple, sessile, the basal portion in- 

 flated but short, tapering gradually into relatively short (25-35 

 microns) sterigmata. Spores fusiform, 7.5 X 1.5 microns, hya- 

 line, imbedded in gelatinous matrices. 



