342 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
which it is developed. It forms white patches a 
foot or more in diameter, made up of a number of 
smaller circular patches, which assume here and 
there a red tint, as if dusted with red powder. 
When the snow melts at the approach of spring 
the whole disappears, leaving behind a withered 
plot, which, according to the greater or less vigour 
or duration of the parasite, is either completely 
barren, or but slowly resumes its verdure. 
Not content with preying upon dead organic 
matter, or growing plants, some fungi also attack 
living animals. In this country there are several 
species of Torrubia, particularly the 7. mzlitaris, 
distinguished by its fleshy orange-red club-shaped 
appearance, which grows in garden soil on the 
larve and pupz of insects; while others are 
parasitic on the LElaphomyces granulatus and 
muricatus in pine woods. In New Zealand, a 
remarkable species long known as the Spheria 
Robertstt grows from the head of the caterpillar 
of the Hepialus virescens, a kind of moth, when it 
buries itself among the moss in the woods to 
undergo its metamorphosis. In appearance it is 
a somewhat crooked, long, slender stalk, terminat- 
ing in the spike-like fructification. Its growth 
destroys the caterpillar; the grub, instead of 
developing itself into a beautiful butterfly, being 
replaced by a nauseous fungus. It is so common 
