MUSHROOM SPORE-PRINTS 295 



A complete list of these exclusive habitats of fungi 

 would well fill a large book, and might indeed almost 

 involve the " index " of our botanies and zoologies, 

 to say nothing of organic substances generally. 



Plants, both living and dead, are favorite habitats 

 for various species. The old stems of the common 

 European nettle, according to Cooke, becomes the 

 host of about thirty distinct species of the minute 

 fungi. The toadstool itself is often the victim of 

 other minor species. Insects are a frequent prey. 

 The wasp succumbs to its special fungus parasite, 

 which has formed a home within its body, and the 

 common house-fly is seen in the toils 

 House-fly of its similar enemy, as it hangs help- 

 fungus less by its proboscis upon the window- 

 pane, enveloped in the winding-sheet 

 of white mould from the fungus which has done its 

 work within the insect's body. Spiders, locusts, 

 ants, cicadae, and presumably all insects, are subject 

 to similar fate from their especial parasitic fungi. 

 The fungus thus often comes to the rescue of afiflicted 

 humanity in regulating the undue increase of insect 

 pests. Here is a pretty, slender, orange, pointed mush- 

 room growing in the moss. We pluck it from its 

 bed, and it brings to the surface a chrysalis, with the 

 dead moth distinctly seen within the cavity from 

 which its roots spring. When we next come upon 

 this species in the moss, we may confidently predict 

 the discovery of this same species of chrysalis. 



A similar long, slender fungus springs from the 

 head of a caterpillar in New Zealand, and at length 

 almost absorbs the insect's body. A similar species 



