176 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



TAugust 1, I860. 



turpentine. First, put a small quantity of balsam 

 on the slide, then, the object from the turpentine, 

 •which press gently into the balsam ; cover this with 

 another layer of balsam, then put on the glass cover 

 in a slanting direction, avoiding hard pressure. The 

 object, now mounted, may be surrounded with air- 

 bubbles, but on examination they will be found to 

 be moving away from the object. All that is now 

 wanted is patience. Leave the slide for a few days, 

 and all the air-bubbles will have taken their de- 

 parture. Eor the better preservation of the object, 

 it is desirable to let it harden without the application 

 of artificial heat. 



Thomas Bkittain. 



.VEGETABLE CATERPILLARS. 



OUR paper on this subject in a former number 

 (page 127) was necessarily too brief and 

 fragmentary to give information concerning exotic 

 species. This circumstance has brought us into 

 correspondence, more especially with regard to the 

 New Zealand species, and induced us to furnish a 

 few additional notes on the subject. We have 

 already stated that two species have been found in 

 New Zealand. To one of these (Tormbia Robertsii) 

 the chief remarks of our correspondents relate. 

 A young officer, returned from a long residence in 

 New Zealand, where he has made this subject his 

 study, has evidently begun at the wrong end, and 

 consequently fallen into serious error. He should 

 first have studied entomology, or at least the pro- 

 minent features in the structure of hawk-moths 

 (Sphingides), and then his researches would have 

 produced more satisfactory results. "My theory 

 is," he states, " that many of the same caterpillars 

 under different circumstances turn into the chrysalis 

 state, and then into moths, and that in every stage 

 you can trace the germs of the growth, which in 

 one case is like a bulrush, in the chrysalis like a 

 round handle (fig. 163, b), in the moth like a long 

 tongue or feeler coiled up under the mouth, and in 

 the living caterpillar (or what the Maoris consider 

 so) a small horn at the tail (fig. 163, a). Some of the 

 caterpillars that come to perfection, and have plenty 

 of food, burrow and become chrysalids ; but others 

 living on high trees {Rata), under which they are 

 always found, fall to the ground, and finding no 

 food among the dead leaves in the bush, follow their 

 natural instinct and burrow ; but as they are not 

 ready to turn to the chrysalis state, die, and then 

 the fungoid growth commences." 



The whole of this beautiful theory, being based 

 upon an assumption which is evidently erroneous, 

 crumbles away. The living caterpillar with its 

 horn, the " handle " of the chrysalis, and the long 

 proboscis of the imago, are just sufficient to assure 

 us that a Sphinx, similar to our Sphinx Convohuli, 



has in its perfectly natural condition been mistaken 

 for the development of the fungus which in reality 

 establishes itself on the caterpillar of a species of 



Fig. 163. a. Caterpillar of a Sphinx ; h. Pupa of a Sphinx ; 

 c. Torrubia Robertsii on the caterpillar of Hepialus vi- 

 rescens. 



Hepialus. Any amateur entomologist will at once 

 recognize the error. A quotation from the same 

 gentleman's journal is, at first, more strictly con- 

 fined to facts, and consequently of more interest : — 



