g8 
MUSEUM NOTES. 
or have at least been generally overlooked. A few forms 
are recorded from Java and the West Indies, but they 
either do not occur abundantly or have not been 
recognised by observers. But in the tropics other 
diseases of this nature find conditions most congenial 
for their development, and although they usually work 
unseen and might not be recognized except by experts, 
are certainly responsible for widespread mortality among 
insects, noxious and otherwise, of various orders. .Such 
forms belong for the most part to the great fungus 
group of “ Ascomycetes,” the more striking forms 
belonging to the genus Cordyceps, which produce the 
so called “ vegetable worms,” etc., and its imperfect or 
isarial conditions. Such fungi attack the larvae or the 
perfect insects or their chrysalids, and convert them into 
mummies by the growth of fungus filaments within 
the body. The insect thus dies wherever it may be; 
buried in the ground, in rotten wood, or on the surface 
of the ground. In many cases where perfect insects 
are attacked they become fastened to the under sides 
of leaves, or to twigs, or other objects, by means of 
fungus filaments, which grow out for this very purpose 
just before death occurs, adhering firmly to adjacent 
surfaces. A further development then takes place by 
which the fungus which fills the body of its victim, 
grows out into the air, forming often greatly elongated 
stalks, several inches long, but varying with the size 
of the insects and the special form of the fungus. 
On these stalks,- and usually in connection with a 
club-like enlargement at the end, myriads of minute 
spores are formed and scattered in the air or washed 
on the ground by rains, and each of these excessively 
minute spores, many millions of which may be dis¬ 
charged from a single club, is capable of reproducing 
the disease in a new insect. Ants, flies, moths, spiders, 
beetles, caterpillars, scale insects, cicadas—in fact insects 
of almost any group are liable to diseases of this nature. 
Although little has been done with these types of 
insect diseases from an economic point of view, there 
can be no doubt that they are an important factor in 
destroying many noxious forms, the so-called imperfect 
forms of certain species, which can be readily handled 
by means of artificial cultures, having been employed 
in this way with success; the most recent attempt in 
this direction being that of the Mycologist of the Board 
