134 McAlpine, The Romance of Plant Pathology ^ [^"^n 



Nat. 



It is a comparatively sim])le matter to destroy the locusts at an 

 earlier stage by spraying them immediately they hatch out. 

 In a summar}^ of experiments with the locust fungus by In- 

 spector Cock, recorded in Mr. French's " Destructive Insects 

 of Victoria," Part III., it is stated : — " I raised the fungus from 

 the dead locusts in three days in moisture, thus proving the 

 fungus was the cause of death." This is just a similar mistake 

 to the one originally made, confounding the fungus found on the 

 dead body of the insect with that produchig the disease. 



Where definite experiments were carried out the results were 

 negative, and I need only refer to those of the United States, 

 as given in the Transvaal Agricultural Journal for July, IQ07 : 

 — " In the United States, where the whoJe matter of the South 

 African locust fungus was investigated on thorough scientific 

 principles, we find that no evidence was obtained to show that 

 a single locust had been killed by the fungus, and that the ex- 

 periments carried out with the fungus at the Colorado Experi- 

 ment Station proved an utter failure ; and examination of 

 localities where success was reported showed conclusively that 

 they were dying from another fungus, Rjnpusa grylli, which had 

 not been disseminated by the hand of man." 



What complicates the situation is that the grasshoppers and 

 locusts have their natural enemies, and that these have destroyed 

 the insects when the sa})rophytic Mucor was supposed to have 

 done so. Cases are not unknown, even in the domain of medi- 

 cine, where the })erfectly harmless sj)urious article was supposed 

 or believed to produce wonderful results ; but this is the only 

 instance known to me of the attribute of " faith " being applied 

 to tlie destruction of grassho})pers and locusts. 



A Xkw Form of Vegetable Caterpillar (?). 



A distinguished entomologist in a neighbouring State sent me 

 specimens of what he called a new form of Cordyceps. Accom- 

 ])anying the specimens there was the following descri})tion : — 

 " The lepidopterous caterpillars (Agrotis or other Noctuid) are 

 under an inch ; the stalk whitish, less than a millimetre at base, 

 and graduallv attenuated to about .2 mm. or less, the dark stroma 

 short and thread-like. Xo indication of branching, though 

 (^ordyceps hawkesii apj^ears to be the only one comjmrable in 

 form." 



X^ow, the recipe given in Mrs. Glasse's cookery l)ook for the 

 l)reparation of jugged hare is very approjiriate here — " First 

 catch your hare " : and before attempting to name or describe 

 a fungus, it is well to make sure that there is one. As a matter 

 of fact, the sj^ecimen was the rat-tailed larva of the drone or 

 bee-fly {Eristalis louix). which is tigured in Froggatt's " Aus- 

 tralian Insects," and the larvae are described as " dirty-white 

 maggots, with slender lat-tails at the tip ot the l)ody. and tlii'V 



