SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 99 



desire for detail which an entomologist must have. Entom., vol. xi. 

 (1878), No. 181, p. 121, Dr. F. Buchanan White says: — "The order 

 Lepidoptera is not the only one attacked by species of this genus 

 {Tomibia), for there are records of at least four other orders, viz. : 

 Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Hemiptera and Hymenoptera, having been 

 attacked. One of the earliest accounts of such an occurrence appears 

 in the Philosophical Tratis. (for 1763) of the Royal Society. . . . "The 

 vegetable fly," etc. To the above orders named may be added 

 Heteroptera, Homoptera, and the allied order Arachnida. Probably 

 the earliest reference to insects forming the bases of fungi is to be found 

 in the writings of Christian Franc Paulinus, in the ninth century, who 

 states that "certain trees in the Island Sombrero in the East Indies have 

 large worms attached to them underground in the place of roots," etc. 

 Here reference is also made to T. robertsii. Entoni., xxii. (1889), No. 

 318, p. 284, Mr. Geo. J. Grapes writes: — "My son writes from 

 Paraparaum, New Zealand : ' I have obtained a veritable entomological 



curiosity for you a dark olive green caterpillar about three 



inches long, which, when full fed, drops or descends from the tree, 

 ostensibly to enter the ground for the purpose of pupation, but which 

 process seem to be arrested by some mysterious cause, and instead of 

 becoming a pupa, a twig-like plant, sometimes forked, about four or five 

 inches in length, grows apparently indifferently either from its head or 

 tail, etc.'" A footnote by the editor says: — "They prove to be the 

 well known fungus Torrubia robertsii, which attacks certain larvae in 

 New Zealand. We have some of the allied fungi in this country." 



Wood's Illustrated Natural History, Vol. i, p. 530: — " Hepialus 

 virescens is a truly curious insect, not so much from its form and colour, 

 but from the strange mischance which befalls the larvae ; the vegetable 

 taking the place of the ichneumon fly, and nourishing itself on the 

 substance which gives it support. A kind of fungus affixes itself to the 

 larva and becomes developed in the strange bed taking up gradually 

 the fatty parts and tissues of the caterpillar until at last the creature dies 

 under the parasitic growth, and is converted almost wholly into vegetable 

 matter." 



Buckland's Curiosities of Natural History. ..." A living creature 



becoming converted into a vegetable occurs in a caterpillar that 



lives in New Zealand. There are several specimens at the College of 

 Surgeons. We see a caterpillar as hard as if it were carved out of wood, 

 and from it growing a long stem. The history is as follows. The 

 caterpillar eats a fungus, or the sporules of a fungus, and these 

 immediately begin to grow in its inside. The beast feels uncomfortable, 

 and possibly thinking it is going to turn into a chrysalis buries itself in 

 the ground and there dies. The fungus goes on growing and absorbs 

 the entire contents of the skin, taking the exact form of the creature. 

 Having done this, it throws out a shoot, and this always at a certain 



fixed spot, viz., at the joint at the back of the head This 



caterpillar is found also in China, where it is used for food." 



There are also very many other notes distributed through a large 

 number of works on fungi, etc., giving nothing in the way of particulars 

 beyond the mere mention of their existence. The following more 

 special information is derived from a very valuable and rare paper 

 printed privately in 1858, by "G. R. G.," a copy of which is in my 



