92 
REVIEWS. 
added some species of Arachnida. The great majority of the species are 
confined to the first three orders. The imago, larva or pupa, are all equally 
attacked by some species, but others are confined to special stages. 
I he species of parasite which has attracted the largest amount of 
attention of late years is the New Zealand. “ vegetable caterpillar,” specimens 
of which are sometimes sent over to this country to those who have friends 
in that part of the world. But it is not generally known that the New 
Zealand species is only one of a number of forms, more or less similar. 
Ihere are not only other large species, such as the Australian “vegetable 
caterpillar,” (Cordyceps Gunnii , Fig. 1), the Tasmanian, and the Mur- 
lumbidgee (C. Taylori, Fig. 2), but some which are found not uncommonly 
in this country, though owing to their smaller size they do not strike the 
popular imagination so strongly as the'giants just mentioned. 
The commonest British species, the red C. militaris, is found upon pupae 
buried in the ground, and attains a height of about two inches, but the 
foreign species reach a length of eight or ten inches. In all these cases the 
spores of the fungus are introduced in one way or another into the body of 
the insect, and then, germinating, gradually consume the contents of the 
body, replacing them by a compact mass of mycelium. Then, when the 
fungus is approaching maturity, it sends forth the external process upon 
which the fructification is borne. The caterpillar in the New Zealand 
species becomes hard and woody in the interior, while, strangely enough, the 
skm appears to be unchanged. 
April, 1898. 
