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Larvae of black flies (Simuliidae) serve as hosts for a number of Trichomycetes. Not infrequently several taxa of these fungi occur simultaneously in individual larvae. The larval hindguts may contain, for instance, species of the genus Paramoebidium (Amoebidiales) to? gether with species of one or more genera of the Genistellaceae (Harpellales), while their midguts frequently harbor Harpella melusinae Leger & Duboscq. This rich representation of Trichomycetes is not unusual in black fly populations in the United States, nor in some species in France (Tuzet and Manier, 1955). The Trichomycetes inhabiting the hindguts of black fly and other Diptera larvae will be the subject of subsequent publications. This paper is concerned with the genus Harpella. Zygospores are documented for the first time as well as structural features of the peculiar appendages borne by the asexual spores.1 Considerable field work with Harpella during the past 6 years has convinced me that the genus, as we now know it, consists of a single species inhabiting a variety of simulid larvae. Harpella melusinae was described by Leger and Duboscq in 1929. It was attached by means of a holdfast to the peritrophic membrane of Simulium ornatum Meig. The thalli were described as simple, at first uninucleate becoming coenocytic, then by septation dividing into uni? nucleate cells. From the distal end of each cell arose a lateral, curved spore (conidium) that served as a means of asexual reproduction. No mention of spore appendages was made in their first paper, but Leger and Gauthier in 1935 illustrated the spore of H. melusinae and showed it bearing 4 basal appendages. Leger and Duboscq (1929) described two situations that they inter? preted as being sexual processes. The first, termed automixis, involved
Knowledge graph centered on Zygospores and spore appendages of Harpella (Trich with 6 nodes and 14 connections. Top connected: Diptera, Undescribed genera and species of Harpellales (Tri, Simuliidae, Simulium, Simulidae.
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2 references to works outside the Knowledge Commons