LARVA OR MAY BEETLE.—PIERS. 205 
four times its own length—colour-bearers, as they look to be, 
bearing not the ensign of victory, but the signal of individual 
distress, telling plainly of the sure but inevitable approach of 
death.” 
Here we have the larva of a moth and the larva of a beetle 
affected by two nearly related fungi, the one in New Zealand and 
the other in Nova Scotia. Both larvee are subterranean and both 
are ultimately destroyed by this death-dealing parasite whose 
unbidden presence, unwelcome and not to be got rid of, marks 
their sure and certain dissolution. It seems to be one of Nature’s 
quiet ways of keeping these troublesome insects within proper 
bounds. 
Note.—Since writing the above, Mr. A. H. MacKay has kindly furnished me with notes froin 
which it seems probable that the fungus, mentioned in the above paper as occuring on the Potato 
Grub, is Torrubva melolonthe (Tulasne). The absence of fruit makes any detailed comparison with 
descriptions impossible, 
. 
