LARVA OR MAY BEETLE.—PIERS, pit aa 
Art. [X.—LArvA oF MAY BEETLE WITH PARASITICAL FUNGUS. 
—By Harry PIERs. 
Read December 10, 1888. 
Mr. D. R. Boyle, of West Arichat, Cape Breton, forwarded to 
the Museum a number of “potato grubs” whose peculiar aspect 
had greatly puzzled him. They were accompanied by a letter in 
which the writer asked for information regarding what he had 
sent. 
Upon examination I found the grubs to be the larve of the 
May Beetle (Lachnosterna quercina, Knoch) a common and well- 
known insect in Nova Scotia. What had excited Mr. Boyle’s 
curiosity, and about which he desired to be enlightened, was a 
long fungus arising from the head and bending backwards like 
an enormous horn. The Museum already possessed 2a. case of a 
similar growth, in a specimen of the New Zealand Swift Cater- 
pillar to which we will subsequently refer. 
The grubs which had the growth upon the head were found in 
the ground close to the potatoes on the 18th of October, 1888. 
They were all dead. They were great numbers without the 
growth and these were mostly within the potatoes. 
Mr. Boyle informs me that he had never before seen the grubs 
affected in this manner, and that the same had been said by several 
others whom he had questioned. 
The growth—or more properly speaking, growths, arise from a 
spot immediately behind the head on either side. That on one 
side is long and tapering and that on the other short and conical 
—at least this is the case with all the specimens which I have 
examined. 
The shorter growth, in a perfect specimen, measures about .08 of 
an inch in length and the longer about 1.50. The latter, as it 
now appears in alcohol, has numerous longitudinal raised lines or 
wrinkles, and, when examined with the microscope, the whole 
