THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 13 



Very few species of fodder grasses seem to exist in these dry 

 localities, the principal ones being the " Porcupine Grass," Triodia 

 irritans, " Wallaby Grass," Daulhonia peniciUata, Ayrostis 

 solandri, Poa fordeana, F. nodosa, and F. ramigera. Of the 

 " Porcupine Grass " the seed stalks and seed heads are the only 

 parts eaten. But so fond do the horses appear to be of these 

 heads that in places where the tussocks were growing very 

 closely together we had great difficulty in getting our steeds away 

 from them. The " Wallaby Grass" is also very nutritious, these 

 two forming the principal fodder grasses of the arid Mallee. 



The caterpillars of the " Army Worm," Heliothris armigera, 

 and a species of Agrotis had caused a vast amount of damage to 

 the " Wallaby Grass " abovementioned, but, by way of compensa- 

 tion, the " Caterpillar Fungus " had attacked them, and the 

 whole lot were probably destroyed. This would appear to be the 

 same species of fungus which destroyed such numbers of cater- 

 pillars near Bacchus INIarsh last September. It seems to attack 

 them in the following way : — " The caterpillars generally crawl to 

 the top of the stems of the juncus, &c., and fasten themselves 

 tightly on, and as the fungus nearly always starts in the lower 

 part of the body, though in some cases it may commence from 

 the head, it gradually causes the caterpillar to decay, and in 

 numerous instances pieces may be seen dropping off. I 

 frequently noticed the lower half of the caterpillar had fallen 

 away, while the remaining part was still living. The caterpillar 

 finally rots away, the head and fore legs only remaining fastened 

 to the plant. The caterpillars when attacked by the fungus soon 

 exhibit a sickly appearance, assuming a light greyish colour, but 

 the fluid in the body of the grubs dying from the effect of the 

 fungus is of a dark greyish-green. So rapidly do the caterpillars 

 succumb to the fungus that on returning to the spot where I had 

 observed apparently healthy grubs the day before, I collected 

 fully two hundred, either dead or dying, and in a few hours after- 

 wards there was not a living specimen to be found, only their 

 remains hanging to the tops of the plants. This fungus was first 

 discovered m Victoria by Mr. C. C. Brittlebank, who made some 

 interesting observations for Mr. D. M'Alpine, who has identified 

 it as an Entromopthora, a group now recorded for the first time 

 in Australia, and Mr. M'Alpine proposes the name Entromoptlwra 

 australis for this species. If this fungus could be utilized in 

 attacking these " Cut Worm " caterpillars which cause so much 

 damage to the crops in this and other colonies, it would prove a 

 great boon to cultivators. Mr. Froggatt, the Government Ento- 

 mologist of New South Wales, has also found a fungus in his 

 colony closely allied to the one under notice. 



Having spent a few days in this interesting spot we started for 

 Vallum, about 20 miles from Hopetoun. This is another good 



