Calyptralegnia achlyoides

Calyptralegnia achiyoides (Coker & Couch) Coker, Jour
Elisha Mitchell Soc. 42: 219. 1927.
Thraustotheca achlyoides Coker & Couch, Jour. Elisha Mitchell Soc. 39: 112. 1923.
Growth very vigorous but slow; hyphae sometimes up to 150 ju thick near base, long, straight, or sinuous, rarely or not at all branched; sporangia formed as in Achlya or Saprolegnia, in diameter equal to or greater than the threads bearing them, not tapering but often of irregular thickness throughout their length, rounded, the early ones straight or with slightly curved tips, the later ones often with recurved ends; spores formed as in Thraustotheca clavata but discharged by the breaking away of a considerable part of the end of sporangium, caused by swelling of an apical group of spores, the spores emerging immediately or coming to rest and emerging several days later, the spores at the tip usually oozing out in a group a few seconds after the cracking of the sporangium, the spores next below this apical group then swelling, extending somewhat the truncated tip of the sporangium, and after a few seconds beginning to move out in their turn, this series of partial discharges involving a few layers of spores each time until all are discharged and become spread out in a loose colony at the sporangiumtip ; spores encysting in irregular, not spheric forms before emerging and not connected by threads as in Achlya, but exhibiting a distinct mutual attraction while emerging; spores usually emerging from their cysts immediately upon discharge, some of them coming out of their cysts even while being pushed from the sporangium; gemmae not observed; oogonia formed rarely under laboratory conditions, spheric or slightly oblong, 55-100 p. in diameter, the walls smooth, borne on usually once-coiled, not rarely straight lateral stalks once to twice as long as the diameter of the oogonia; eggs 1-8 in an oogonium, 42-60 y, in diameter, rarely up to 77 p., then only one to an oogonium, often crowded and elliptic from pressure, centric, the wall about 4 p. thick; antheridia not always developed, but when visible, quite often borne on branches arising from the oogonial stalk, not rarely diclinous, one to several to an oogonium; antheridial tubes developed.
Type locality: Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Habitat: Fresh water and soil.
Distribution: North Carolina and Oklahoma; also in Great Britain.