122 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



(excepting that it has no wings) resembles the drone, both in 

 size and colour, more than any other English insect. In the 

 month of May it buries itself" in the earth, and begins to 

 vegetate. By the latter end of July the tree is arrived at the 

 full growth, and resembles a coral l)ranch, and is about three 

 inches high, and bears several little pods, which, dropping 

 off, become worms, and from thence flies, like the English 

 caterpillar." The animal attacked is supposed to be the 

 larva or pupa of a Cicada, and the fungus Turrubia. soholifera : 

 but of course the incidents of the latter part of the story are 

 all or mostly imaginary. 



The conidiilerous state of certain Torruhice are like some 

 of the mould fungi, and bear the spores, or seeds, attached 

 to threads, which are often massed together to form branching 

 clubs, mealy on the surface from the numerous globose 

 spores. When in this state they were once referred to the 

 genus Isaria, which belongs to a different family of the 

 fungi. In the higher, or Torrubia, condition, which they 

 may or may not reach (for in the lower, or Isaria, otherwise 

 conidiiferous — so called from their bearing the kind of spores 

 termed conidia — condition, the plants reproduce their species), 

 the appearance of the plant is quite different, as it is provided 

 with a stalk, or club-shaped head, often more or less red in 

 colour, and in which the rod-like sporidia (as the seeds in 

 this family are termed) are produced in certain receptacles 

 called perithecia. 



As far as 1 can judge froui the description and figure of 

 Mr. Sharp's fungus it itiay be Isaria fori nana, the conidiiferous 

 stale of the bright red Tornibia Hiiiilaris, which is said not 

 to be uncommon upon pupaj, but is, I think, certainly com- 

 moner in the Isaria than in the Tornibia slate, which 1 have 

 never found. I say it may belong to that fungus ; but without 

 actually seeing the specinitn it is impossible to be siu'e, as 

 several other species occur in this country. Auiongst these 

 are Isaria a rach/iop/i ila, which 1 have found on dead spiders ; 

 I. spliiiH/um, a new British species, recently recorded froui 

 Kincardineshire, where it was found on dead lepidoplerous 

 pupa;; Torrubia entotiiorrliiza and T. yracilis u|Jon dead 

 iarvaj and pupa; ; and T. myrmecopJula on ichneumons, &c. 

 I'hen in other countries have been found T. melolontlKB upon 

 the cockchaffer, T. curculio/tum upon weevils, T. Cicspitosa 

 upon grasshoppers, 7'. Miquelii and T. sobolifera upon 

 Cicadas, T. laylori upon Australian caterpillars; the well- 

 known 7'. liuberlsii, so often seen in museums, which is 

 found on the larva; of the New Zealand Charayia, or 



