SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 
99 
desire for detail which an entomologist must have. Entom.^ vol. xi. 
(1878), No. 181, p. 121, Dr. F. Buchanan White says: — “The order 
Lepidoptera is not the only one attacked by species of this genus 
{Torrubid)^ for there are records of at least four other orders, viz. : 
Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Hemiptera and Hymenoptera, having been 
attacked. One of the earliest accounts of such an occurrence appears 
in the Philosophical Trans, (for 1763) of the Royal Society. . . . “The 
vegetable fly,” etc. To the above orders named may be added 
Heteroptera, Homoptera, and the allied order Arachnida. Probably 
the earliest reference to insects forming the bases of fungi is to be found 
in the writings of Christian Franc Paulinus, in the ninth century, who 
states that “certain trees in the Island Sombrero in the East Indies have 
large worms attached to them underground in the place of roots,” etc. 
Here reference is also made to T. robertsii. Entom.^ xxii. (1889), No. 
318, p. 284, Mr. Geo. J. Grapes writes: — “My son writes from 
Paraparaum, New Zealand : ‘I have obtained a veritable entomological 
curiosity for you a dark olive green caterpillar about three 
inches long, which, when full fed, drops or descends from the tree, 
ostensibly to enter the ground for the purpose of pupation, but which 
process seem to be arrested by some mysterious cause, and instead of 
becoming a pupa, a twig-like plant, sometimes forked, about four or five 
inches in length, grows apparently indifferently either from its head or 
tail, etc.’” A footnote by the editor says: — “They prove to be the 
well known fungus Torrubia robertsii, which attacks certain larvae in 
New Zealand. We have some of the allied fungi in this country.” 
Wood’s Illustrated Natural History, Vol. i, p. 530: — Hepialus 
virescens is a truly curious insect, not so much from its form and colour, 
but from the strange mischance which befalls the larvae ; the vegetable 
taking the place of the ichneumon fly, and nourishing itself on the 
substance which gives it support. A kind of fungus affixes itself to the 
larva and becomes developed in the strange bed taking up gradually 
the fatty parts and tissues of the caterpillar until at last the creature dies 
under the parasitic growth, and is converted almost wholly into vegetable 
matter.” 
Buckland’s Curiosities of Natural History. ... “A living creature 
becoming converted into a vegetable occurs in a caterpillar that 
lives in New Zealand. There are several specimens at the College of 
Surgeons. We see a caterpillar as hard as if it were carved out of wood, 
and from it growing a long stem. The history is as follows. The 
caterpillar eats a fungus, or the sporules of a fungus, and these 
immediately begin to grow in its inside. The beast feels uncomfortable, 
and possibly thinking it is going to turn into a chrysalis buries itself in 
the ground and there dies. The fungus goes on growing and absorbs 
the entire contents of the skin, taking the exact form of the creature. 
Having done this, it throws out a shoot, and this always at a certain 
fixed spot, viz., at the joint at the back of the head This 
caterpillar is found also in China, where it is used for food.” 
There are also very many other notes distributed through a large 
number of works on fungi, etc., giving nothing in the way of particulars 
beyond the mere mention of their existence. The following more 
special information is derived from a very valuable and rare paper 
printed privately in 1858, by “G. R. G.,” a copy of which is in my 
