92 
times in abnormal habitats. Frequently insects lay their eggs in caterpillars, in 
which they grow and develope their progeny — others lay the eggs on the hair of 
mammals, and are licked off and swallowed, only for the larvae to be living in the 
air-passages, to the discomfort and death of the unfortunate host. This is too 
commonly found in our neighbourhood, causing destruction among the calves 
living in the low districts of the Old and New Passages. 
Some plants can only be obtained from the most out-of-the-way substances, 
e. g, many specimens of Splachnum are only seen on the dung of foxes, or oxen, 
another lives on the hoof of a dead horse. These freaks of nature are well illus- 
trated in the specimen I have brought to show you to-night, which has been given 
me by a kind friend. It is half a vegetable and half an animal. The fungus I 
am going to describe is only found on a certain caterpillar. 
The following note accompanied the specimen : — " Fungus Grubs, from 
Tasmania. These grubs having eaten a species of fungus, go into the ground and 
grow. Those grubs which do not eat it, live through their different stages." 
A very good description of the caterpillar fungus by the late Dr. Pereira is in 
the Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. \2, p. 291, from which I have copiously drawn. 
In it there are figures of two species, the one found in China and Japan, the 
" Sphoerium. entomorhiza," and one in New Zealand, " Sphoerium Robertsii." The 
former is described as three inches long, half being the caterpillar, but does not 
well agree with the Rev. Mr. Berkeley's description of S. entomorhiza in Smith's 
English Flora, voL 5, part 2, where it is described as " carnose, head sub-globose, 
&c, &c." My specimen, however, accords well with Dr. Pereira's description of 
S. Robertsii. 
Each individual is about six inches long, the fungus comprising more than 
half the length. The caterpillar is of the usual shape, having a light yellowish 
brown colour. The head, segments of the body, and pro-legs are distinctly recog- 
nizable. Projecting from the back part of the neck is a long club-shaped body, 
forming the fungus in question. As I before stated, it is a Sphoerium, probably 
identical with the S. Robertsii found in New Zealand, and in this opinion I am 
supported by Dr. Stephens, Stapleton, one of our best authorities on fungi, and 
who collected one of the first two specimens of S. entomorhiza ever found in 
England. Like the f'oreign,the British Sphosria are found on dead larvae and pupae 
of insects, The Sphoerium Robertsii on the table has the capitulum six-tenths of 
an inch long, elongated and acuminate, though not so vermiform as Dr. Pereira's 
figure, ostiola in my specimen indistinct from withering, perithecia elongated, asci 
long, containing a double row of very minute oblong sporidia, mixed with slender 
paraphyses. Stem, four inches long and a quarter of an inch thick, lighter in 
colour than the capitulum, which is very dark, nearly black. The base of the stem 
is furnished with root-like filaments, which are imbedded in the neck and body of 
the caterpillar. 
Although Mr. Berkeley says the British species of Sphceria are formed on the 
pupae as well as larvae of insects, the Chinese, Japanese, and Tasmanian have 
hitherto only been noticed as existing on the larvae of Lepidoptera. Dr. Double- 
day, of the British Museum, says he thinks the caterpillar bearing the British 
Spherium entomorhiza is an Agrotis, but that on whose larvae the New Zealand cater- 
