102 



TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



Eastern travellers know to their cost lio^v flies 

 commnnicate ophthalmic disease. Darwin speaks of 

 seeds being transported over seas in earth adhering 

 to the feet of birds. It is at least as likely that 

 flies which revel amid putrid substances may occa- 

 sionally convey spores in similar fashion. Almost 

 all insects are liable to be attacked by parasitic 

 fungi. The remarkable case of the New Zealand 

 moth, the caterpillar of which, when it buries itself 

 among moss to undergo its metamorj)hosis, is 

 attacked by a species of Sphceria {S. Rohertsii), has 

 given rise to the notion that the insect develops 

 into a plant. Wasj)s, bees, and flies are sometimes 

 seen carrying about with them fungoid growths, no 

 doubt with their complement of spores. The disease 

 of the silkworm is caused by the fungus Botrytis 

 hassiana. A fungus which preys on the common 

 house-fly is supposed to have close relations with 

 another which causes disease in salmon, perch, and 

 other flsh. When we take into account the fre- 

 quency with which insects aie attacked by fungi, 

 and when we consider the remarkable transitions 

 which such parasitic fungi as Piiccinia undergo — 

 spending one part of their existence on one host 

 plant and another on a totally different one — it 

 may well be that insects stand in a much closer 

 relationship to these plants than has hitherto been 

 suspected. Of what use, it may be asked, are the 

 brilliant hues of the amethyst Clavaria, the fly 

 Agaric, or the peacock fungus? Are the yellow, 

 orange, scarlet, and purple tints of fungi and lichens 

 .meaningless? That some of them maybe protective 

 or warning colours is indeed probable, but that 

 they are so in every case seems incredible. Several, 

 again, emit agreeable odovirs, such as the truffles, 

 Parmelia fragrans, and the lemon-scented fungus. 

 And if the stench of Phallus and others be repulsive, 

 the same may be said of many flowers. The gigantic 

 Amorphophallus Titanum, the skunk-cabbage {Syin- 

 plocarpxis foetidus), and other Aroids, as well as 



