The Vegetable Caterpillar

Southland Times, Issue 4987, 26 July 1884, Page 4

The Vegetable Caterpillar

There is nothing m all nature more curious, or more sugß«BliTe of the wonderful working of the laws of the Creator, then the aneetoot Wetablecaterpillar of New Zealand. There are, no doabt, millions of highly intelligent people who, if they were told by a traveller that to New Zealand caterpillars are vegetables, or, to put It the other way, that, bulrushes are insects, would simply reject the ■tdry as a ludicrous fiction. There are many scientific men still living, who, on a «pecimen of a Tegetable caterpillar being shown to them, at ones pronounced it an imposture, cleverly contrived wijUi plaster or paper or »ome other artificial substances. They were scarcely to btf blamed/ indeed ; for the vegetable caterpillar looks decidedly like a hoax, and actually is, we believe, the only, known instance m the whole field pi natural science, of the apparent nn'on of !»nimal and vegetable functions m one and the came organism. We speak of the union as apparent, because, though toe animal and the vegetable appear to be one creature, theyare .hot really so. The Animal is «n insect, a genuine caterpillar, called by entomologists Mpialis virescens, reaching when, full grown, the immense length of three inches and a half, and a corresponding girth, and living its short life us other caterpillars do, m an, easy-going gluttonous, comfortable, aldermauic sort of way. It frequents particularly, if not quite exclusively, the neighborhood of the rata tree (Metrosiderps robiista), the lovely vscarletflowing gigantic creeper of the New Zealand forest ; though why it goes there, or why it does not go anywhere else, is a dark and solemn mystery. At a certain season of the year, when, after the manner of its kind, it experiences an irresistible longing to retire ' from society, Ripilias burrows m the ground at the foot of the rata to which it belongs, and there, no doubt it would, if left to its own devices, speedily abandon itself to. the monastic seclusion of the' chrysalid state. But it is not left to its own devices. For tome reason which we cannot pretend to explain, it has pleased the divine Wisdom also to attract to the soil at the foot of the rata tree, and to no other spot, a parasitic fungus, called.by botanists Spheeria IfoforfowV which when full grown may best be described as a diminutive-bulrush, void of leaves, and consistiog solely of a r stem from six to ten-inche3 m height, with a soft furry flower or sred head, and a root varying m length and bulk according to circumstances — very pecu'iar circumstances. Incredible as it may seem, it is nevertheless a prosaic fact that the bulrush Spitocria needs the assistance- — or a tall events' takes it— of the caterpillar Hipilias, m order to , get an introduction to the. l/eau nwnde, and afterwards maintain itself there .As the caterpillar gropes about m the soft mossy eartb, the dust-like seed of the fungus gets embedded, m the movable scales of its neck, and germinating there strikes root m its fat, moist, inert body. From the nape of the caterpillar's neck there arises^he stem of the bnlrush .which, pushing its way to the sarf ace. soon grows to its allotted height and fructifies m a velvety scrfc of capsule at the point. At the other end, the root of the plant takes entire possession of the carcase of 'he unfortunate caterpillar, which it exactly fills m all its parts, and literally converts into an imitation of a caterpillar of hard brown wood or pith. As soon as this process is fully accomplished, the caterpillar die?, and so docs the bulrush, both remaining dry' and s'iff, and firmly, attached to one another. The sole ostensible purpose if the vfgetable-insect after tha*, is to furnish a marvel for the naturalist and a problem for ilae philosopher. We ha«e before us as we write, three beau iful sptcimens of the aiveto — the Maori name for the caterj War and plant combined — two the p'opertj of th 3 Timaru Mustum, an 1 one recently presented to vu by a friend who knows our weakness for oddities, We have also before us a drawing by the famous Delmoite, of an aiveto which was sent as a great treasure to Buck' and, Dean of Westminster, about forty je;N ago by a clergyman at Parramatta, the to.'c comuiunication between New Zealand and the Mother Country at that time being by way of New South Wales. This picture was employed by Frank Buckland, the Dean's eon, to illustrate bis admirable notes to the new edition of White's Natural History of Selborne m 1877 ; and for accuracy it might have been photographed from any one ol the awetos lying on our table at this moment. Professor Delamotte, however, drew the creature, for the express purpose of demonstrating its unique conditions of existence, m a sect'on of earth, with the caterpillar lj ing m its burrow and the bulrusb curving forwards and upwards through the soil and standing up above it three orfour inches, Buckland offered no explanation of this b range phenomenon, and we are not aware that any explanation of it, worthy of serious at' entio 3, has ever been offered by any* body. It remains a 6ilent bu none the less eloquett warning against vain and hasty conclusion? as to creation having b°en an accident, aid nature- being a bewildering conglomeration c f things growing out of nothing of their own accord. Ihe aivct haeitg prototype m hnaaan affairs, ia the cunning, bold, aspirirg character, who having limber wealth corpositun nor any other advantages for rising m tbe world, fastens on some lich dullard, makes his acquaintance the steppingstone to bis own fortunes, and never leaves him until he has sucked him dry aud turned him to his own purposes to the Just fraction ha i chesses,