August 1, 1866.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



177 



"January 9th. — I and a Maori have just dug up 

 a vegetable caterpillar from under the roots of a 

 'rata.' There are lots of them just here; he is 

 digging for a third. He says they go under ground 

 in February, and it takes years for the vine (or ten- 

 dril fuugus) to grow to its full length. The tendril 

 appears about four or five inches above the ground 

 generally, but often much more. The whole length of 

 the largest tendril I saw to-day was about nine or 

 ten inches. Some of the caterpillars appeared much 

 fresher than others. The end of the tendril is like 

 the velvety-looking part which grows from the 

 centre of an Arum flower, or the end of a reed 

 {Typha ?), and tapers off. The caterpillar itself lies 

 close under the root of the ' rata ' ; the soil where we 

 found them to-day was the ordinary good bush soil. 

 I afterwards went with the native to see what he 

 said was the living caterpillar before it buried itself : 

 there seemed plenty of them in the Kumari's leaves 

 at Pokinhoe. They were green and black, with a 

 horn at the tail, from which he said the tendril 

 grew. Went in the afternoon and dug up half a 

 dozen. There seemed to be any number growing 

 about where we found the first this morning. I am 

 sure the longest tendril was quite a foot long." 



The supposition of the growth requiring years, 

 and the repetition of the connection between the 

 buried caterpillars and those of a Sphinx must be 

 discarded. It is, however, only just, in this connec- 

 tion, to quote the remarks of Dieffenbach, who has 

 fallen into the same error in his " Travels in New 

 Zealand." He says it is called "Hotete" by the 

 natives ; and in his appendix, under the name of 

 Sphinx, states : " The caterpillars feed on Convol- 

 vulus Batatas. The Sphmria Robertsii is found para- 

 sitical on this caterpillar, which only occurs at the 

 roots of the ' rata ' (Jlelrosideros robusta)." 



Let us refer to the account given by Dr. Hooker 

 of this same production, in a letter quoted in the 

 Journal of Botany, p. 209 (1841) :— 



" About Sphceria Robertsii 1 collected all the in- 

 formation, and as mauy specimens as I could, but 

 am still much at a loss to account for its develop- 

 ment. They are found in spring, generally under 

 tree-ferns ; the caterpillar is buried in the ground, 

 as is the lower portion of the fungus. Now both 

 these fungi (that is, the present and Torrubia Tay- 

 lori, another Australasian species) belong to cater- 

 pillars which bury themselves for the purpose of 

 undergoing the metamorphosis; and both Mr. 

 Taylor and Mr. Colenso hold the same opinion, 

 that in the act of working the soil, the spores of 

 the fungus are lodged in the first joint of the neck, 

 and the caterpillar settles head upwards to undergo 

 its change, when the vegetable develops itself. 

 I do not remember you have remarked in your 

 ' Icones ' that the entire body of the insect is filled 

 with a pith, or corky vegetable substance, and that 

 the intestines are displaced, which my specimens in 



spirits show well, and then what does the muscular 

 fibre of the animal become ? It must, I suppose, 

 be all turned into vegetable, for the skin of the 

 creatures remains quite sound all the time. This 

 change may take place from the displacement of 

 one gas and development of another ; it also occurs 

 in the dark, and is hence somewhat analogous to the 

 formation of fungi on the timber-work in mines. 

 However this may be, the whole insect seems 

 entirely metamorphosed into vegetable, with the 

 exception of the skin and intestines." 



A note appended to this extract states that 

 Mr. Dieffenbach determined the moth to which 

 the larva belongs to be Hepialus virescens, whereas 

 we have shown that this gentleman regarded it as 

 a Sphinx. • From another source we gather, on the 

 authority of Dr. Jonathan Pereira, additional infor- 

 mation on this point : — 



" Dieffenbach suggests that the insect is a species 

 of Sphinx which feeds on the ' sweet potato ; ' but 

 the absence of any spine or horn on the last seg- 

 ment of the larva is an objection to this suggestion. 

 Mr. Doubleday thinks that it may be Hepialus vi- 

 rescens, which is found at the root of the rata tree. 

 He has a caterpillar apparently identical with that 

 on which the fungus grows, and which is believed 

 to be the larva of Hepialus virescens." * 



There is one discrepancy in Dr. Hooker's account 

 which we cannot at present understand in so excel- 

 lent a botanist, inasmuch as he declares that the 

 infected caterpillars are found under tree-ferns, 

 whereas in all other accounts the "rata" is named, 

 and this is further strengthened by a passage in the 

 " Report of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1851," 

 p. 289 :— 



"Major Last states that it is chiefly, if not ex- 

 clusively, under and above the roots of the ' rata ' 

 {Iletrosideros robusta) that the plant caterpillar, 

 Sphceria Robertsii, is met with." 



In the first instance we were doubtful whether 

 our correspondent had not found another species of 

 vegetable caterpillar, but this doubt was soon dis- 

 pelled on receiving from him a veritable specimen of 

 Torrubia Robertsii (often called Sphceria Robertsii), \ 

 together with the sketches of caterpillar and pupa, 

 from whence our figures are derived. 



The other New Zealand species of parasite occurs 

 on the pupa of a cicada, and is the Cordyceps Sin- 

 clarii of Berkeley, and the Torrubia ccespitosa of 

 Tulasne. C. 



* Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. ii. p. 592 (1S42-3). 



t We may observe that this curious production is figured 

 and described in Hooker's " Icones Plantarum," vol. i. 

 pi. 11 ; in the "Transactions of the Entomological Society 

 of London," vol. iii. pi. 4 ; in Lindley's " Vegetable Kingdom," 

 fig. 25 ; in the " Pharmaceutical Journal," vol. ii. p. 593, fig. 3 ; 

 in Hooker's "Journal of Botany," vol. iii. pi. 1, fig. Aj and 

 under the name of Sphceria Hugelii in Corda's " Icones Fun- 

 gorum," vol. iv. pi. ix. fig. 129. 



