NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

THE VEGETABLE CATERPILLAR BV 3. DHUMHOND, F.L.S., Jf.Z.3. s Tho life-history of the amazing vegej table caterpillar still offers a fascinating » study to New Zealand naturalists. All t that is known practically is that the 3 spores of tho fungus Cordyceps become ; attached to the moist body of a cater- . pi'lar or to the grub of some other f insect, and germinate there. TTiey send out germ-tubes, which penetrate the , outer host of the creature attacked. They . become enlarged or change into thread- - like elements, which branch and grow 5 through the creature's skin, and into its J flesh and tissue. In the creature's blood, these elements produce long-cylindrical bodies, which enlarge and develop to such an extent as to kill the victim. The elements continue to grow, and absorb the tissue of the dead body, until only the skin remains intact. No trace of the form ' of the internal organs remains, but it is stated that in some cases there may be . found traces of the intestines. The victim usually is the caterpillar of ' a moth or butterfly. Sometimes it is the ! grub of a cicada, commonly, but wrongly, ' called the locust. Mr. H. E. Bellringer, New Plymouth, reports that, on Mount i Egmont, at an altitude of 4000 feet, he • found the grub of a.beetle, Odontria, that ! had been attacked. It is between an inch , and an ?nch and a-quarter long. Only ; one leg remains, but Mr. Bellringer states that it clearly is not the leg of a cateri pillar. The lungus, having killed and > taken possession oi the grub's body, sent up two shoots from behind the head, the ' usual position from which the, stems • apiing. Unlike some other specimens, - neither of them is forked. The longer : of the two is about an inch and threet quarters long. The grub's body and the • stems are a clear, light brown. Th& 1 stems are different in colour from those of Coidyceps Kobertsii, fairly general all ' over tlie JNorth Island, and are frailer i and smoother. There is only one other record of Cordyceps attacking the grub of a beetle , in New Zealand. The victim in that instance was the grub of the lemon-tree borer, which is a pest in the Auckland district, and which passes its grub and chrysalis stages in manuka, malice and other shrubs and trees. Mr. Bellringer's vegetable caterpillar may belong to the : same species, Cordyceps Aemonae, as tho slayer of the lemon-tree borer's grub, .or it may be a new species. Mr. J. Duncan, Cambridge, states that some 50 years ago, when lie was a boy, lie heard the strange nocturnal notes of tno laughing owl or laughing petrel at Green Island, near Dunedin. He describes the " hilarious, human-like laughter, uttered very quickly, and not readuy forgotten." His father, who now lives at Kaitangata, told him that the ' laughing bitd was a battling puzzle. Mr. jJuncan adds that about years ago, wandering 'light birds sometimes were attracted by a powerful light near an old colliery snaft at Kaitangata. Mr. C. Nicholson, who occasionally inspected the shaft, "was surprised to find, swimming in the water at the bottom, a bird about the same size as a starling, with a greenish tinge on the feathers of its back, and with webbed feet. It evidently was a petrel, and Mr. Duncan suggests that petrels produce the laughter that some observers ascribe to the big native owl. Recent notes have faiied to ■ convince Mr. C. Parr, of Roxburgh, that the laughing owl laughs. implying to other correspondents, he slates that he does not claim that it does not laugh, but that his experience leads him to believe that it does not. He despairs of ever inducing Mr. W. W. Smith, ol New Plymouth, to change his opinion that the nocturnal laughter comes from the largo owls. In regard to Mr. F. B. Smith's letter, describing a petrel-like bird, to which laughing notes are attributed, Mr. Parr states: "Were his laughing birds the real laughing jackass ? On dull, drizzly nights in South Canterbury, we used to hear, high overhead, birds we called rain-birds. They probably were a species of petrel. They seemed to fly in only two directions, from the sea and toward it. Their note was continuous, and was different from the note of the laughing jackass. Some people might describe it as a laugh. Sir Walter Builer states that the large owl has short and feeble wings, which in his opinion indicate that its powers of flight are limited. I differ from Mr. W. W. Smith when he states that the owl is a powerful flyer. When my brothers and I were boys, we caught the owls, if we came acros.s them in an open paddock, by running after them until they were exhausted." Professor A. Dendy, whose death in England was announced in the cable message:? a short time ago, had the best collection of tuatara specimens in spirits, and tuatara embryos, in the world. Soon after he arrived in New Zealand in 1896, to become Professor of Biology at Canterbury College, he was urged to study the tuatara's development. His main object was to study the development of the pineal eye, which is traced in a tiny body, shaped like a pine-cone, and containing sand-like particles, in the third hollow of vertebrates' brains. The opportunity was a rare one. as the pineal eye shows a higher degree of structure in the tuatara than in any other known creature. He obtained from Mr. P. Henaghan, principal lighthouse keeper on Stephen Island, Cook Strait, a valuable supply of material for investigation, including tuatara eggs. Several lots of eggs were sent packed in moss or in lichen, in tin cans, but they were apt to become bad if delayed on tho voyage, and it was found that the bestmethod was to pack a few together in cans filled with coarse brown sand. It was possible to keep the eggs developing, buried in damp sand after their arrival in Christchurch, but thero was some risk, as some of them were attacked by a mould if they were too damp and had insufficientventilation. If allowed to become too dry they shrivelled up. In the first, consignment, all the embryos died, apparently on account of the eggs* drying up, but one embryo was removed from the egg in a condition that gave it much value. Later Professor Dendy obtained from the island a magnificent series of embryos. The tuatara's left pineal eye, Professoi Dendy found, appeared as an outgrowth from' the fore-brain, slightly to the left of the middle line, at a very early stage of development. The right pineal eye appeared slightly later, and never reached anything like the same degree of organisation as the left. These studies led him to believe, that the ancestors of all existing vertebrates, including the ancestors oi man. in addition to the ordinary pair of eyes, had not only one pineal eye, but a pair of pineal eyes, placed side by side on the top of the head, originating as outgrowths of the brain, and looking upwards. The Rev. F. J. Wyeth, of England, the latest biologist to take the tuatara in hand, stales that the pineal eye organs may be regarded as degenerate sense organs. Black-backed gulls destroyed two owes last year on Mr. A. 0. Graham's farm, Oxford. The ewes had been cast by the heavy wool on them, and were helpless. One had its tongue pecked out and the other lost both eyes. Gulls were dis ■ turbed at thrir work. Both ewes died.