"THE VEGETABLE CATERPILLAR."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20520, 22 March 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

"THE VEGETABLE CATERPILLAR."

BY ELSIE G. EVANS.

Those of you who hava visited th'j Museum may have noticed in the section where our native ferns are shown, sonns very queer-looking things from the bush called " vegetable caterpillars." You will remember that they looked brown and dried-up as though " mummified," and that they had a long, whip-like formation sprouting out at one end ? Perhaps you wondered how- they became-like that if they are caterpillars?*

Now, as you know, everything depends oy many things to. keep* life going. Plants-need the sun. rain and earth, in order to flourish. Animals, insects and - grubs devour- tho plants, and human beings need both the plants and animals. Low on the scale of plant life are the ® fungi, such as mushrooms, toadstools and the mould that sometimes comes on stale bread. The.ie cannot make their own food so they have to obtain it ready-made- H They are called " parasites." To one such tiny fungus called Cordiceps, a particular kind of caterpillar is necessary if it is to continue life. This caterpillar coai.es from the egg of a New. Zealand moth, which lives in the soil about fern roots. The Cordiceps settles and commences to live on the caterpillar. It. pierces the outside skin of its victim by sending down a tiny tube which you would need a microscope to see, because it is so small. It gradually penetrates into the flesh, sends out many branches and establishes itself to such an extent that the caterpillar is killed. Then it extracts all the nourishment until only the skin of the caterpillar remains. Inside ii is just a mass of fungus.. The Cordiceps now sends out, through what was once the head of the caterpillar, a whip-like structure some inches long, with a clubbed end. Out of this , end come the spores, which serve as the seeds of this flowerless plant. They float about in the air until they come to rest on the necessary caterpillars. Then they in their turn commence to live in the way described.

Wo are fold that some kinds of Cordiceps in other countries are really benefit to plantation owners, because they de- ■ stroy many pests. One kind in Ceylon | is a parasite on the caterpillar of an insect which attacks the roots of coffee i plants. Another in the West Indies lives on the caterpillar of an insect which does a. great deal of damage among, sugar plantations. •So we seo that some Cordiceps. though so very minute, are helping mankind by their very nature as parasites, to kill oft j some of the enemies of the plant world. Mankind cannot but be grateful to this very tiny partner in the war against- insect pests.