On Vegetable Substances growing on living Animals. 39 



drew them from their cells, and satisfied himself that there was 

 an incipient vegetation, and moreover that its progress had kept 

 pace with the growth of the chrysalis. It was remarked, that 

 rarely or never was there more than one vegetable on a single 

 wasp. 



He then satisfied himself why the vegetable parasite was a- 

 tuated on tne fore-part of the body. Botanists have pronounced 

 this production to be a species of Spharia, belonging to the na- 

 tural order of FtmgL Upon the supposition that it is propa- 

 gated by seeds* in the ordinary mode, these seeds would natu- 

 rally alight upon the most exposed part of the unhatched insect 

 that was accommodated for their reception. This would of 

 course be near the head. Being fixed there, it would increase 

 with the enlargement of the animal, and drawing nourishment 

 from its body, would continue to grow even after it had attain- 

 ed its last and perfect state, until the Spharia had destroyed 

 the Hfe of the wasp. 



The mind becomes reconciled to the idea of a vegetable sus- 

 taining itself upon a living animal, by considering the history of 

 the Ichneumon, an insect of the Hymenopterous order. It is 

 called pupivorous, on account of the voracity with which its 

 larvae devour the larvae, chrysalids, and even eggs of other in- 

 sects, more especially those of the Lepidopterous order. Some 

 of them penetrate the bodies of their prey, and, with their num- 

 berless brood, slowly consume, and at last kill them ; while 

 others, the Ophions, are attached to the skin of the larva by the 

 footstalk of a cocoon, through which their heads pierce the in- 

 ternal parts, while their tails remain in their own inclosures. 

 This operation frequently continues until the large invaded larva 

 completes its cocoon, when it dies consumed and exhausted. 

 After this, the family of ichneumons come forth, first bursting 

 their own cocoons, and then that of their prey. It is also stated 

 as a fact, that one species of Ichneumon sometimes destroys the 

 larvae of another species of the same genus. These occurrences 

 furnish strong and instructive analogies. 



Here we find that the living bodies o£ caterpillai's and their 

 chrysalids, are the habitations and nurseries of other insects, the 

 Creator having arrayed one tribe against another, apparently 

 for the purpose, among others, of putting a limit to their own 



