217 



njitive Chinese caterpillar, and is not unlike a congeneric North Ameri- 

 can spe.cies, Conlycvps {Torntbia) ntrenelii Berkeley, known as the White 



CJrul) Fungus. A sonu'what full account 

 of these fungi, together Avith tigures of 

 the White Grub parasite and host was 

 published in the American Untomologitstj 

 Vol. Ill, pp. 137-140. 



The accompanying letter of transmit- 

 tal, containing interesting notes on two 

 species of insect fungus, is reproduced 

 hercAvith : 



In the catalogue of the Customs Office it is 

 called, Cliuug-ts'ao, or Tung-cliung-hsia-ts'ao, 

 Corydijceps chinensls. A kind of fungus. 



In winter an insect, in summer a plant. It 

 grows upon the head of a caterpillar, as a dis- 

 ease of the insect. It is sold in small packages, 



_ generally tied together with red cotton. Each 



rio.24Zcor!/d2/c«P*c«Ji«!«i«ffrowiBg..pon of the many pieces forming the small bundles 

 its host larva in its natural umlerground consists of two distinct portions, the larger 

 position. Natural size (redrawn from an portion belonging to the insect of a yellowish 

 unpublisbed figure by A. C. Jones). l,r«.wn color more than an inch long, showing 



rings, joints, and grub, and the upper fungus portion, consisting of a si»urred fila- 

 ment of a grayish brown color, llexible, more or less 

 twisted, and internally of a light color. 



In former times it was esteemed even more highly 

 than ginseng, as a medicine. It comes from the prov- 

 inces of Hupeh, Szechuan, and Thibet. 



I find in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthh/ of April, 1891, 

 that a similar plant insect has also been discovered in 

 New Zealand, and is called in the article alluded to the 

 "Aweto," and is described as the oddest insect in ex- 

 istence; so odd that unless it were vouched for and 

 explained scientifically it would be considered a hoax. 

 It is not easy to decide whether it ought to be classed 

 nnder the fatina or flora, for it is as much vegetable as 

 animal, and in its final stage it is a vegetable and noth- 

 ing else. At first it is a perfect caterpillar and a fine 

 one, growing to 3^ inches in length. Until it is full- 

 grown it conducts itself very much like any other in- 

 sect, excejjt that it is never found anywhere but in the 

 neighborhood of the Rata tree, a large scarlet-flowered 

 Myrtle, and that it habitually buries itself a few inches 

 in the ground. Then, when full-grown, it undergoes 

 a wonderful change. For some inexplicable reason the 

 spore of a vegetable fiangus, the S2)hoeria robertsii fixes 

 itself directly on its neck, takes root, and grows, like 

 a diminutive bulrush, from 6 to 10 inches high, without 

 leaves, and Avith a dark-brown head. This stem jien*-- 

 trates the earth over the caterpillar, and stands up a 

 few inches above the grounil. The root grows simul- 

 taneously into the Itody of the caterpillar, which it exactly fills in every part, with- 

 out altering its form in the slightest degree, but simply substituting a vegetable 



Fig. 25. — Corydi/cepn chinenmn. the 

 commercial article. Natural size 

 (orijlin.il). 



