Minutes of Proceedings. ili 
<receipt, and the interesting nature’ of the discovery, he responded 
(on November 12th) by sending twenty-six examples. 
Mr. Alston reports that the fungi in question are found with the 
expanded and variously-shaped terminal spore-bead projecting from 
the surface of the ground—sometimes as much as # inch, and that 
he found the best way to discover them was at every few paces to 
squat down, when they were much more readily seen. Though he 
found most specimensin ground among Thorn-trees (Acacia), some 
were found at a distance from any trees. 
The larva attached in this case is to all appearance that of a 
Heteromerous (Tenebrionid) beetle, and Mr. Péringuey thinks it 
probably one of the extensive genus Psummodes. The fungus in 
every instance springs from the anterior extremity of the larva, and 
almost always from the under surface of the head and first thoracic 
-segment ; sometimes the head is almost free while the second thoracic 
segment is occupied. 
Like so many grubs of beetles, the kind under notice lives under- 
-ground, and is in all probability (like the caterpillar of the New 
Zealand moth above mentioned) an eater of the roots of plants. As 
long ago as 1838, Prof. Westwood exhibited to the Entomological 
Society of London a large beetle larva, of the Lamellicorn group, 
‘from South America ; andin his figure of it (Trans. Ent. Soc., pl. 
VI., f—6) I find that the fungus—apparently a damaged Torrub 
-—attached to it, to which he called attention, springs from the under 
surface of the thoracic segments as in Mr. Alston’s examples. The 
Lamellicorn beetles—of which the common cockchafer or ‘“‘ May-Bug” 
is a familiar type—are also subterranean feeders in the larval state ; 
-and so are the Cicade, of the order Uomoptera, on the larve of 
which, in Mexico and Brazil, a species of Yorrubia has been found 
- Perfect insects are, however, subject to attack; wasps, ants, and 
moths, in various parts of the world, having occurred with fungi 
of the same genus attached to them. 
There seems to be still some doubt whether the Torrubia attaches 
itself toa living insect and occasions the death of the latter, or is 
-only developed on an insect already dead. In the case, however, 
of an American wasp on record, it seems pretty certain that the 
fungus-bearing insect was observed to be still alive though moribund ; 
_and probably most of us have noticed horse-flies dying from the attacks 
-of a humbler form of fungus, Sporendonema musce, Fries, which occu= 
ies the body and eventually covers it with a mnute white mould. 
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