Transactions. — Zoology. 



Akt. II. — Note on Cordyceps sinclairii, Berkeley. 



By Professor W. B. Bekham, D.Sc, M.A., F.Z.S. 



iRead before the Otago Institute, 12th September, 1S99.] 



Plate I. 



The group of colourless plants referred to by the botanist as 

 "fungi" include a number of organisms having very varied 

 habitats and interesting life-histories. For example, the 

 edible mushroom ; the numerous toadstools, many of large 

 size and conspicuous colouration ; the minute " blue moulds " 

 growing on jam, old boots, stale moist bread, and in various 

 other situations ; a number of still less noticeable species 

 occurring as saprophytes or parasites in plants, and producing 

 gall-like malformations and other diseases, such as "rusts," 

 mildews, and so forth ; and, finally, there are several genera 

 that attack living animals, causing disease and bringing about 

 their destruction. 



Amongst these so-called parasitic fungi there is one genus, 

 Gordyceps, that is confined to insects. A good number of 

 species are known, each attacking a different insect. The 

 general mode of attack is, as far as is known, as follows : 

 During the resting-period of the insect, when the larva is 

 preparing to enter the stage preceding its metamorphosis into 

 the imago stage, or complete insect, spores of the fungus gain 

 entrance into its tissues. Here the spores give rise to thread- 

 like " hyphse," which make their way in all directions through 

 the living tissues of the insect's body, absorbing nourish- 

 ment therefrom. As a consequence the fungus grows, and 

 gradually replaces entirely the tissues of the animal, which 

 has slowly died. Up to this period the plant has been 

 invisible from the outside, but now it proceeds to " fructify." 

 For this purpose some of the hyphse push their way, as a 

 compact bundle, through the skin of the insect, and grow 

 upwards into the air. The purpose of this exposure is to 

 insure scattering of the spores destined to be formed by these 

 " aerial hyphas." This dissemination is effected by the wind 

 or other external agent. They thus have an opportunity of 

 reaching another insect, or living organism, so that the life- 

 history may be continued. 



The vegetable caterpillar, which is fairly well known to 

 New Zealand naturalists, and has been referred to by a num- 

 ber of observers in the pages of the Transactions, is a fungus 

 called Cordyceps rohertsii, Hooker, 1843 (or, as it is more 

 correctly named according to the laws of priority, C. hugelii,. 



