THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 159 



"There is a white mushroom known in the region in which I was 

 raised, as poisonous and fatal to the hogs that ieed on it. I believe 

 it is common in all localities in which I have been. In the spring of 

 1842 I observed in what is called a ' new ground' in Virginia a great 

 quantity of these mushroom, and in reply to some remark I made 

 about them, some of my father's negroes, who were then making hills 

 with hoes for planting tobacco, inquired of me if I knew what pro- 

 duced these mushrooms. On my replying in the negative, I was in- 

 formed that they grew from the White grub worm. I think there 

 were some twelve or fifteen negroes present, all of whom curcurred 

 in the statement, and said it was no new thing to them. They had no 

 difficulty in establishing the truth of what they stated, because they 

 dug them up in all their stages of germination and growth before my 

 own eyes. In a very short time they had furnished me with a large 

 number of the worms in their original shape, features and size, and 

 as distiuct to the eye as if they had been alive, but having the con- 

 sistency, color and smell of a mushroom ; and I actually broke them 

 up, just as a mushroom breaks in one's hands, snapping them cross- 

 wise and sqarely off. Many others I found to be enlarged before 

 germinating, and many just germinating, but with the shape of the 

 worm preserved. And in some I noticed that the features of the 

 worm were preserved in the root, even after the mushroom had grown 

 up through the earth and attained some size. 1 gathered a good 

 many specimens in their various stages into my handkerchief, and 

 carried them to my father's house, where they lay on the mantel for 

 some time. They seemed, however, to be no novelty to many to 

 whom I exhibited them. In fact they were familiar to almost all 

 who had opportunities of investigation, and to whom I mentioned 

 them at the time." 



Whether there is any relation between these two fungoid growths 

 further investigation will alone tell; but when we shall have become 

 better acquainted with them we may possibly be able, by sowing the 

 spores of either kind to effectually kill the White Grubs in our fields. 



THE AMERICAN MEROMYZA—Meromyza Americana, Fitch.— 

 PI. 2, Fig. 28. 



(Diptera Muscidee.) 

 ATTACKING WHEAT. 



About the middle of the month of June last, in all the wheat fields 

 which I examined between BlufFton on the Missouri river and St. 

 Louis, I noticed that a great many of the ears had prematurely ripen- 

 ed, had turned yellow and were stunted and shorter than the rest, and 

 upon examination the kernels proved to be withered and shrunken. 



