Insects and Mushrooms 



tacked by the grubs in the field. It needs im- 

 prisonment in a jar and the absence of other 

 victuals to provoke the attempt; and even then 

 the treacle hardly seems to suit them. After 

 the liquefaction, the grubs try to make off, 

 showing that the fare is not to their liking. 

 The Mollusc also, the Arion, is anything but 

 an ardent consumer. Passing close to an im- 

 perial mushroom and finding nothing better, 

 he stops and takes a bite, without lingering. If, 

 therefore, we required the evidence of the in- 

 sect, or even of the Slug, to know which mush- 

 rooms are good to eat, we should refuse the 

 best of them all. Though respected by the 

 vermin, the glorious imperial is nevertheless 

 ruined not by larvae, but by a parasitic fungus, 

 the Mycogone rosea, which spreads in a purply 

 stain and turns it into a putrid mass. This is 

 the only despoiler that I know it to possess. 



A second amanita, the sheathed amanita 

 (Amanita vaginata, bull.), prettily streaked 

 on the edges of the cap, is of an exquisite 

 flavour, almost equal to the imperial. It is 

 called lou pichot gris, the greyling, in these 

 parts, because of its colouring, which is usually 

 an ashen grey. Neither the maggot nor the 

 even more enterprising Moth ever touches it. 

 They likewise refuse the mottled amanita 



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