NATURE NOTES

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 21, 4 June 1952, Page 4

NATURE NOTES

THE VEGETABLE CATERPILLAR

(By

"H".)

Eleven miles from Taupo on the Napier Road is Opepe of sacred memory. How many who have visited this spot for its historical^ interest know of the strange things hidden away in the Bush beyond the little cemetery. One needs a fine day in summer or autumn and a little knowledge of the trees to begin with. We will start with the Vegetable Caterpillar technically known as Cordyceps Robertsii, and continue with a lot of patience and perseverance. First of all we will find a Broadleaf or a five-finger, a celery pine, a bush lawyer, or a matipo. Next we will look carefully in the leaf-mould and if lucky will see one or two small prongs protruding a few inches. Our hands must do the excavating, as tools are too risky. Gently scraping away the soil and leaves we discover a queer wooden caterpillar with one or two horns tipped with ends like stamens — all brown. Here is our vegetable caterpillar. It was first found in 1842 by the Rev Richard Taylor, who described it in the Tasmanian Journal of Scipnce. The Cordyceps Robertsii is a fungus which attacks the caterpillar of a large green moth called Ensyii porina, or else another, also green, called Hapialus variscens. As the fungus acts upon the living caterpillar the live tissue is absorbed by the fungus which while retaining the caterpillar shape throws up one or several stems several inches in length. These carry the spores or seeds which are then ready to attack another caterpillar.