58 



PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Mr. Water-house has another of the same species, but the Sphseria is branched. 



Perhaps the latest example that has been discovered is found in Othius ful- 

 vipennis, for the accompanying woodcut and description of which I have 

 been indebted to the kindness of A. H. 

 Haliday, Esq. Fig. a (the natural 

 length shown by the line), Othius fulvi- 

 pennis, found (alive) under a stone, at 

 St. Anne's Hill, Blarney, County Cork, 

 at the end of October, infested by a minute 

 cryptogamic parasite, chiefly on the ab- 

 domen and legs, the head and attennge 

 being free. It grows attached in tufts, 

 like a minute Hipnum. The stems, scarcely 

 exceeding, at the utmost, half a line in 

 length (fig. b and c, more highly magni- 

 fied, as they appear in situ), are nearly 

 black, sparingly branched, appearing im- 

 bricated and furrowed, from accumbent, 

 smooth, compressed linear fronds, (in a more advanced stage ?) becoming divergent 

 towards the ends of the branches, which ultimately produce a thinner, foliaceous, 

 semi-transparent, liguliform lobe, of a light brown colour (the fructification?). 

 This parasite appears to differ from that on Brachinus crepitans, observed by Rouget, 

 and figured in " Annals de la Soc. Entom. de France," Ser. 2, tome 8, pi. 3, fig. 1. 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



In this class we have numerous examples. In China, we read, there is found a 

 geometrical larva, which has a long and rather thick stem, growing from the head, 

 about 2 5- inches long. Father Parenin, who sent it to France, observes that it 

 was a scarce plant, being found only at the palace of Pekin there ; where also it 

 was not a native, but brought from the mountains of Tibet, and some other places 

 on the confines of the Chinese Empire. This Father had never seen the leaves or 

 flowers of this plant, but only its roots, which were in high esteem there, not only 

 because of their miraculous change, but from their possessing the virtues of the 

 ginseng. The Father also sent home these roots which were supposed to be changed 

 into a worm, for which they are called, hiatsiotonetcheon that is to say, a plant 

 that, at certain times, changes into a worm. The Chinese suppose that this is a 

 plant during the summer season ; but that in winter its stalk dies, and the root 

 becomes a worm. We have also a lepidopterous larva, commonly called the New 

 Zealand caterpillar (a number of which are exhibited). Mr. Children informs us 

 that this grub lives entirely on the sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas, Linn.) ; 

 during the season it continues healthy and active, but ultimately dies ; it retains 

 its natural appearance, but becomes dry and hard, when an appendage sprouts 

 from its tail, from four to six inches long, resembling a small twig. Mr. West- 

 wood has examined the internal appearance of some of these caterpillars, and 

 found that the interior was filled with a hard, dry, whitish matter, like the kernel 

 of a nut, and that a very slender, tortuous, black line ran down the centre of the 

 body, and on each side the trachea were observed at some distance from the out- 

 side of the body. Dr. Buckland examined this whitish substance, and found it to 

 be entirely vegetable. In this place, also, may be mentioned the Botrytis bassiana, 

 which causes such destruction among the silk-worms abroad, and which seems to 

 have an analogy to the fungus that attacks our house-fly. 



Specimens of Sphseria attached to lepidopterous larva? or pupae occur but very 

 rarely in England. The sketch I exhibit is one from the herbarium of the Rev. 

 M. J. Berkeley. The following is its description S. entomorrhiza : head, one-third 

 of an inch long, broadly elliptic, quite distinct from the stem ; changes from chesnut 

 to bright red-brown, minutely dotted with the ostiola of a tough, fleshy consis- 

 tence, nearly white within ; stem, two inches high ; skin, thick ; pale above ; 

 darker below, as the same colour of the head ; slightly mottled. 



No instance of this parasitism has been as yet discovered in Scotland ; and it is 

 now nearly three years since my friend, Mr. Hogan, had the pleasure of adding 



