THE CHARACTERISTICS AND MORPHOLOGY OF A NEW GENUS OF THE LABOULBENIALES ON AN EARWIG

Abstract

THERE ARE now included in the Laboulbeniales approximately 1500 species, all of which occur as parasites growing attached to the exoskeleton of insects or to that of a few of the Arachnida. Among these species are 26 which have been obtained from various species of earwigs (Demaptera ) ; 17 belong to the genus Dimeromyces Thax. of the family Peyritschiellaceae, and 3 to Dermapteromyces Thax., 3 to Nanomyces Thax., and 1 to Corethromyces Thax. of the family Laboulbeniaceae. The majority of these species of earwig parasites that have been reported have been obtained from hosts collected in the southwest Pacific. Others have been taken in China, West Africa, South America, Central America, the West Indies, and the United States (Thaxter, 1908, 1924, 1926, 1931). Of the 8 species of these parasites that are known from the North American continent and the islands of the West Indies, 5 belong, to Dimeromyces and 3 to Dermapteromyces. The only collection of an earwig belonging to the genus Prolabia on which any laboulbeniaceous parasites have been found appears to be that of Prolabia annulata F'abr., taken by Kellerman in Guatemala, on which Thaxter (1931) reported finding Dermapteromyces labiae Thax. at the time he characterized the genus Dermapteromyces and assigned 3 species, all found on earwigs, to it. All species representing the 5 genera that have been reported on earwigs are quite small and generically very distinct from the laboulbeniaceous parasite of Prolabia pulchella (Serville), the handsome earwig common in the Baton Rouge area of Louisiana. This parasite is being reported and described in this paper. The possession of simple antheridia would place this