in the ground. Then, when full-grown, it undergoes 
217 
native Chinese caterpillar, and is not unlike a congeneric North Ameri- 
can species, Cordyceps ( Torrubia) ravenelii Berkeley, known as the White 
Grub Fungus. A somewhat full account 
of these fungi, together with figures of 
the White Grub parasite and host was 
published in the American Entomologist, 
Vol. 111, pp. 1387-140. 
The accompanying letter of transmit- 
tal, containing interesting notes on two 
species of insect fungus, is reproduced 
herewith: 
In the catalogue of the Customs Office it is 
called, Cliung-ts’ao, or Tung-chung-hsia-ts’ao, 
Corydyceps chinensis. 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. Itis sold in small packages, 
: generally tied together with red cotton. Each 
Fig. 24. eee chinensis growing upon Of the many pieces forming the small bundles 
its host larva in its natural underground consists of two distinct portions, the larger 
position. Natural size (redrawn from an portion belonging to the insect of a yellowish 
Bape bished secure by 4 C. Jones). brown color more than an inch long, showing 
rings, joints, and grub, and the upper fungus portion, consisting of a spurred fila- 
ment of a grayish brown color, flexible, more or less 
twisted, and internally of a light color. 
In former times it was esteemed even more highly 
than ginseng, as amedicine. It comes from the prov- 
inces of Hupeh, Szechuan, and Thibet. 
I find in Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly 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 
under the fauna 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 34 inches in length. Until it is full- 
grown it conducts itself very much like any other in- 
sect, except 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 
a wonderful change. For some inexplicable reason the 
spore of a vegetable fungus, the Spheria robertsii fixes 
itself directly on its neck, takes root, and grows, like 
a diminutive bulrush, from 6 to 10 inches high, without 
leaves, and with a dark-brown head. This stem pene- Fic. 25.—Corydyceps chinensis, the 
trates the earth over the caterpillar, and stands up a commercialarticle. Natural size 
few inches above the ground. The root grows simul-  Tisial). 
taneously into the body of the caterpillar, which it exactly fills in every part, with- 
out altering its form in the slightest degree, but simply substituting a vegetable 
ape es 
