666 Proceedings. 



ing or fructifying stage, protruded through the skin in order to scatter 

 their spores : a similar proceeding also characterizing Entomophthora 

 musca;. Passing afterwards to the " vegetable caterpillar," the speaker 

 showed that the name was very appropriate, as the thing was partly 

 caterpillar and partly fungus, although some writers (notably Mr. Pratt, 

 in his " Travels in China and Thibet ") spoke of it as " a plant which 

 imitates a caterpillar." The grub itself was stated to be the larva of some 

 large moth, probably of the genus Hepialus : and the fungus belonged to 

 the genus Cordyceps, the specific name being C. robertsii. Here the 

 action of the fungus on the insect was, practically, the same as that of 

 EntovmphtJiora, as it took possession of and destroyed all the interior 

 organs; but, as the caterpillar was subterranean, the fungus, in order to 

 reach the air and scatter its spores, pushed out a long stem through the 

 earth, and at the extremity of this stem the " asci," or small bags con- 

 taining the spores, were developed. Specimens of the caterpillar and of 

 the Cordyceps were exhibited both in the natural state and under the 

 microscope. The speaker concluded by expressing the hope that some of 

 our young colonial students would take up the investigation of these 

 insect parasites, which, over and above their scientific interest, had a very 

 great economical value, inasmuch as they tended to decrease the enemies 

 of the cultivator. 



Mr. Hudson considered this a most interesting paper. The fly 

 fungus referred to is found chiefly in autumn. It is a matter of opinion 

 as to whether flies are injurious; they certainly are good scavengers, 

 and it is a question whether they ought to be destroyer). There was not 

 sufficient evidence to show that Mr. Pratt was wrong in his opinion as to 

 the vegetable caterpillar. It is important to ascertain for certain what 

 insect it would turn out to be if not attacked by the fungus. The larva 

 of the Porina mairi was the only one large enough, and they were very 

 rare, probably owing to the fact that they are so frequently attacked by 

 Cordyceps robertsii. Of course it may be Hepialus virescens. If we could 

 get the caterpillar free from the fungus we could ascertain what it was. 



Sir James Hector considered the author had done great service by 

 his interesting paper, and had opened a new field for preventive natural 

 history by the discovery of fungi antagonistic to insect blights. The 

 phenomena of the fly and of the caterpillar he considered very different. 

 In the case of the first the perfect insect was destroyed ; but in the case 

 of the caterpillars the spores of the fungus were probably passed on by 

 the perfect moth through the egg and grub, as in the case of the pebrene 

 of the silkworm, the investigation of which was one of Pasteur's greatest 

 researches. 



Sir W. Buller said it would require a brave man to break a lance 

 with Mr. Maskell on a field of which he was an acknowledged master, 

 and he would therefore not attempt to criticize the part of his paper re- 

 lating to scale-insects and fly-killing fungi. But he ventured to challenge 

 Mr. Haskell's description of the vegetable caterpillar {Cordyceps robertsii), 

 because he considered it unscientific and misleading. Mr. Maskell bad 

 described this natural object as a sort of compound caterpillar or animal 

 at one end and fungus or vegetable at the other. He (the speaker) con- 

 tended that, so far from this being the case, it was Cordyceps, or vegetable, 

 from one end to the other. There had, of course, originally been a living 

 caterpillar, of which the fungus-growth was an exact replica, but what 

 he now held in his hand was in its entire tissue and substance, even to 

 the covering cuticle, pure vegetable. The spores of the fungus, taken 

 into the body of the caterpillar, which had gone underground for the 

 purpose of undergoing its natural transformation, had germinated, and, 

 rapidly filling the body, had absorbed or assimilated the whole of the 

 animal substance, its growth or development being circumscribed by the 

 outer integument or skin of the caterpillar, which it bad only pierced at 



