1867.] 121 [Kneeland. 



most usual place for the fungus to appear, is from the pectoral sur- 

 face of the thoracic segments. The larvae generally lie upon their 

 side, so that the fungus usually appears from the lateral surfaces ; they 

 are usually found dead, and either decayed or dried up. One para- 

 site is oi'dinarily all that is found on one larva ; but two, three, or 

 more, are occasionally found. 



The diurnal Lepidoptera have not been found giving origin to these 

 fungi, or even to moulds ; but the nocturnal Lepidoptera are very 

 much infested, both in the caterpillar and the perfect state. The par- 

 asitic mould or muscardine, which attacks and destroys great numbers 

 of the silk-worm, belongs to this class of vegetable parasites. 



Among Orthoptera, the mole-cricket (Gryllotalpa) has been found 

 infested with a fungus parasite. 



Among Hymenoptera, ants, bees, wasps and hornets are subject to 

 similar growths. 



Among the suctorial Heteroptera and Homoptera, (in the latter the 

 Cicadce especially), we find also these vegetable parasites. 



Among the Diptera, the common and blue bottle flies are often seen 

 adherent to windows and ceilings in the autumn, covered by a whitish 

 mould or fungus, which seems to have burst out from between the 

 segments of the abdomen, and between the joints of the legs ; so 

 rapid is the growth of this fungus, that when the insect is so far af- 

 fected internally as to alight, it soon dies, and is attached by the fun- 

 goid filaments to the object on which it rested ; it rapidly spreads in 

 a few hours over the insect, and for some distance around it, as may 

 often be noticed on the window panes. 



Spiders are also affected in a similar way ; and it might be interest- 

 ing to ascertain if they are not thus affected from feeding upon flies 

 infested with the fungus. 



From the numerous examples now on record, it is certain that life 

 is not extinct when the insect becomes the basis of the vegetable par- 

 asite. Most of the insects thus affected are vegetable feeders, and it 

 is generally admitted that the spores or seeds of the fungus are swal- 

 lowed by the insect with its food, and that the seeds do not become 

 attached to the exterior of the body, and afterward penetrate to the 

 interior. Mr. Gray is of opinion that the seeds are always introduced 

 with the food ; but other observers maintain that the seeds gain ad- 

 mission to the interior of the animal also by the tracheae or breathing 

 apparatus. 



These seeds are so exceedingly minute as to appear like smoke in the 

 air, and Fries has estimated above ten millions in a single plant ; their 

 minuteness, however, is not so wonderful as that each contains within 

 itself the elements necessary for germination. Whether taken with 

 the food from the soil, or from the air or soil by the breathing appara- 



