PARHELIA MILLANIANA. 175 



•was sent by Dr. Macmillan for comparison and determination is 

 undoubtedly identical with Dr. Taylor's Dunkerion specimen of 

 P. enclochlora, Leight. Lidi. FL, p. 1-iO, notwithstanding some 

 trivial minor differences in the condition of the specimens. 



W. A. LEIGHTON. 

 March 24th, 1875. 



CRYPTOGAMIC PARASITES OF LIVING INSECTS. 



The following abstract of a note upon cryptogamic parasites of 

 insects may have some interest for the readers of " Grevillea." It 

 is from the " Bulletin entomologique " (Seances de I'annee, 1873, 

 pp. cxxix.-cxxxii.) of the Entomological Society of P"'rance. 

 MM. J. Fallou and Maurice Girard found, near Paris, in the 

 spring of 1873, larvae of two species of moths killed by parasitic 

 fungi. Specimens of these larvae were sent to M. Maxime Cornu, 

 one of the members of the commission on Phylloxera, who reports 

 to M. Girard that one of the two species of larva — that of Bomhyx 

 ruhi — had perished from the attacks of a fungus closely allied to, if 

 not identical with Botrytis bassiana, Bals., the muscardine of the 

 silk -worm. 



The other species of larva — that of Chelonia Hebe — had been 

 killed by a very difl'erent fungus, belonging to the genus Emptisa 

 (Cohn), Entomophthora (Fresenius), and perhaps the same species 

 as that which destroys flies in autumn. M. Cornu, after some 

 remarks upon Empusa mnscce, writes — " I have been able to 

 examine an Entomophthora upon the Puceron (aphis ?) of the 



elder, at Montpellier, in last April I have studied the 



parasite of this Puceron completely, and one of the most singular 

 facts is the following : a Puceron^ containing in its interior fifty-two 

 young in various states of development, was full of the corpuscles 

 of the Entomophthora (it had them even in the ant nnee !), whilst 

 the young were all perfectly healthy, and did not contain a single 

 corpuscle. This seems to show that the fungus must find, in order 

 to get into the animal, a natural opening, a w^ound, &c., and that it 

 is incapable of perforating the coverings and integuments of 



insects The question of the penetration is still full 



of obscurity ; the time at which it takes place, and the conditions 

 under which it is effected, are not known. The remarkable fact 

 of the present case is the existence of the Entomophthora in a 

 larva ; I believe that this is the first time that this has been re- 

 corded." 



After alluding to other insects (^Trachea piniperda and Ten- 

 thredo sp.) attacked by Entomophthora, M. Cornu says — " It is 

 possible that in these different insects there is only one and the 

 same parasite, Entomophthora muscce ; at the present time neither 

 this nor the contrary can be affirmed." 



