THE LITERARY 



OF THE LFNN^AN ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE. 



Vol. r. JUNE, 1845. No. 8. 



ENTOZOICAL FUNGI IN INSECTS. 



BY JOHN G. MORRIS, D. D. B/^I,TIMORE, MD. 



It is well known to all observers of the natural history of insects, 

 that they are subject to the attacks of numerous animal parasites, wliich 

 destroy immense multitudes of them, and which, I believe, are designed 

 by a wise Providence to keep them from increasing to too dangerous an 

 extent, if it were not for these parasites and birds, 'which devour them 

 in countless numbers, w^e would ahnost every year be afflicted with an 

 insect-plague. These animal parasites are of various characters and hab- 

 its. Some of them live in the interior of larvae or caterpillars, and sub- 

 sist on their fat, where most of them undergo their transformation, but 

 at the cost of the larva's life. Some are found adhering to the external 

 body of the perfect insect, to which they occasion extreme annoyance, 

 and, to some of them, death. But vegetable parasites on insects are not 

 so familiar, and on this subject I desire to say a few words. 



Some species of insects, both in the larva and imago, or perfect state, 

 are subject to a parasitic fungus which grows out of various parts of 

 their bodies. — Those who have been engaged in rearing silk-worms have 

 probably observed on some of the (hseased worms a moukl or mildew, 

 which, when examined through a microscope, is found to be a vegetable 

 growth of the cryptogamous class and fungous order of the Linnaean sys- 

 tem. It constitutes the disease called muscardine by the French. In the 

 warm climate of South America, a fungus of several inches in length 

 is found growing upon dead insects of the wasp and cricket families. 

 One of these, which occurs on the island of Guadeloupe, is called by the 

 inhabitants la gtiepe vegetal, or vegetable wasp. A Sphinx (a large cre- 

 puscular butterfly,) was once found by the celebrated botanist De 

 Srhwcinitz, of Bethlehem, Pa. with a fungus of the genus haria Pers., 

 proceeding in all directions from the al)domen, nerves of the wings, Stc. 

 The Sphinx was dead when discovered, and it is not known whether 

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