Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1892 — A Plant Growing from a Caterpillar. [ARTICLE]

A Plant Growing from a Caterpillar.

The curious fungus which is sometimes taken for an insect is a fungus that roots itself in a caterpillar and grows from it, feeding on the body of the insect. Of course in time the insect dies, and the-fungus then perishes as soon as it has exhausted the nutriment in the body of the caterpillar. The plant is of the same nature as a mushroom, and when it matures it produces spores by which new plants are propagated in the same way, attaching themselves to any insect that comes in contact with them in the soil. These curious plants are used as medicine by the natives of some parts of Asia, where they are found quite abundantly. The plant, when dug out of the ground, has the exhausted and dried body of the insect attached to it in the manner of a root, but it is easily distinguished by its shape. The insect is filled with the substance of the fungus and appears as a part of the plant. A variety of beetle that is found in North America is attacked by the same kind of fungus; others are in Central America, and others in New Zealand. In the last-mentioned country the fungus is very large and has all the appearance of a mushroom which is eaten as food by the natives.