38 
REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 
Giard, Alfred. 8ur quelques types remarquables de champignons en- 
tomophytes . Bulletin Scientifique de la France et de la Belgique, 1889; 
pp. 197-224. Three plates. 
This articles comprises a series of notes on a number of species of en- 
tomogenous fungi the greater part of which have already been published 
in a communication to the Soci6t£ de Biologie, and which are here re¬ 
published in a fuller form and with the addition of notes. 
Of the nine species mentioned eight are species named and described 
by himself, and four of these represent new genera. Over half of the 
article is devoted to the three species Entomophthora saccharina, Giard, 
E. plusice , Giard, and E. calliphorce , Giard, all of which are illustrated. 
He has made many trials in germinating both the resting spores and 
conidia of E. saccharina and finds that the latter lose their power of 
germination very rapidly and by September 1 it is impossible to infect 
insects with them ; the resting spores would not germinate either in the 
insects or any artificial substratum, and moreover, before spring the 
bodies of the infested insects containing the resting spores had become 
covered with the sand of the dune on which he found them. He does 
not attempt to answer the question as to what becomes of the resting 
spores or how the caterpillars are infected in the spring. 
E. plusice came to the author’s notice in 1888 on some caterpillars of 
Plusia gamma which were destroying a field of trefle and luzerne. He 
did not find the resting spores but thinks it possible that they may ap¬ 
pear on the autumn generation of the insect, and suggests that it may 
be the conidial form of E. megasperma. Attempts to inoculate any form 
of Sylpha opaca failed entirely, but the author believes that the inocu¬ 
lation of Plusia is particularly favored by an Acridien which repro¬ 
duces on the infested insects. 
During the researches on E. calliphorce two forms of resting spores 
were found, recalling both by this fact and a remarkable similarity of 
spores the Basidioholus ranarum of Eidam. The infested Diptera were 
discovered to be filled with resting spores and Giard is inclined to think 
that the following is the history of the fungus. The resting spores are 
eaten with the Diptera by Batrachians. They germinate in the digest¬ 
ive tube and produce conidia and some resting spores on the excre¬ 
ments. Here they are eaten by the Calliphora, in the bodies of which 
they produce resting spores incapable of germination without a change 
oi host. The experiments necessary to demonstrate this hypothesis 
have not been made. 
The other species described or noted are E. forficulce on Forficula au- 
ricularia: E. Fresenii , Now., which he has transferred from the genus 
Triplosporium and considers as probably identical with Neozygites aphidis , 
Witz., Chromostylium clirysorrhece Giard, Epiclilcea divisa , Giard, Eali - 
saria gracilis , Giard, and Polyrhizium leptophyei , Giard. 
