Buller. — On the Vegetable Caterpillar. 155 



Art. XII. — Note on the Vegetable Caterpillar (Cordiceps ro- 



bertsii). 



By Sir Walter L. Buller, K.C.M.G., D.Sc, F.K.S. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 20th February, 1895.'] 



Plate VIII. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of Mr. Maskell's 

 paper on the 14th November, I maintained, in opposition to 

 that gentleman's definition — "animal at one end, vegetable 

 at the other" — that the so-called Vegetable Caterpillar, as we 

 now find it, is entirely vegetable substance. The author, as 

 I understood him, contended that the body of the caterpillar 

 had become permeated with vegetable tissue, but that the 

 outer integument or skin was still dried animal matter. To 

 put an end to any possible doubt on the subject, I forwarded 

 to Sir James Hector a specimen of the Vegetable Caterpillar, 

 and asked him to get it examined and tested by the Govern- 

 ment Analyst, for the purpose of ascertaining its true con- 

 stituents. The following result has been officially commu- 

 nicated to me : — 



Mr. Skey. 



The question at issue is, whether the skin of the caterpillar re- 

 mains, or if it has been converted into fungus like the soft internal tissues. 

 The presence or absence of chitine will determine the question. Save 

 the specimen for reference. 



James Hector. 22/11/94. 



Vegetable Caterpillar. — For animal matter in the so-called skin. 

 The skin does not give any indication of the presence of chitine or 

 other animal substance. It burns without intumescence, and does not 

 evolve the odour of nitrogenous matter in combustion. 



William Skey. 23/11/94. 



In the course of my remarks at the meeting I stated that 

 I had dug up in the woods hundreds of this singular product, 

 and that in every instance that had come under my observa- 

 tion the caterpillar, in the living state, had descended into 

 the ground tail-foremost, the stem of the fungus afterwards 

 springing from a point between the back of the head and the 

 first fold of the neck, and then ascending vertically to reach 

 the light. Since that date I have been examining the speci- 

 mens in my collection, and I have found one very curious 

 example in which there is evidence of a different proceeding 

 on the part of the caterpillar, with exactly similar growth of 

 the fungus. In this instance the caterpillar had evidently 

 buried itself head-foremost, and then turned its head slightly 

 to the left, whereupon the fungus had commenced its stem- 

 growth at the usual point and travelled upwards in a line 



