THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



75 



lupulimis, and which were found in a heap of wet clay, 

 amongst the underground rhizomes or stolons of the common 

 coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara), in all probability their food- 

 plant. These larvae are all dead, and 

 are remarkable as forming the pabu- 

 lum of a fungus, probably a Sphaeria, 

 which completely occupies the whole 

 interior, and sends out its mycelia iu 

 all directions through the skin, espe- 

 cially at the spiracles ; but in addi- 

 tion to this fungoid substance in the 

 interior, and fibrous mycelia, I find in 

 some specimens, amounting in all to 

 less than a seventh of the series be- 

 fore me, that a stout capitate column 

 {a a) rises from the neck of the larva 

 immediately behind the head ; this is 

 very evidently the fructification of 

 the fimgus. I had the pleasure of 

 demonstrating, some thirty years ago, 

 that the mycelium of AgaricusGeorgii, 

 one of the Fungi that produce the 

 familiar fairy rings, is in reality the 

 subterranean plant, which radiates in 



all directions from a central point, producing flowers or fruit 

 only at the extremities of the branches ; these flowers are all 

 that we see above ground : a continuous crop is produced 

 throughout the summer, and as their brief existence termi- 

 nates they decay on the surface of the ground, enriching the 

 soil, and producing those circles of vivid green which appear 

 so unaccountable to the rustic. The same theory of growth 

 is exemplified in the common mushroom and all its allies, 

 but the geometric regularity of growth is not apparent. The 

 occurrence of Fungi on dead larvae is by no means new to 

 entomologists ; examples have been exhibited from Tas- 

 mania, Australia, New Zealand and Chinti. In the printed 

 ' Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London' many 

 records of these fungoid growths occur, and readers of the 

 ' P^ntomologist' who have the opportunity cannot fail to be 

 interested in perusing these. See Proc. Ent. Soc. of Lond. 

 1834, p. xviii. ; 1836, pp. vi., xxiii. ; 1838, p. iv.; 1839, p. 



