Capreae

“ Very happy in my suffering, which sets me on a safe path, I continue my enquiry by arguing thus: the virus in the blood cannot be a living substance, one that takes part in the working of the organism; it is rather, like urea, a form of decay, an offthrow of the vital process, a waste product which is expelled as and when it forms. If this be the case, I ought to find it in the caterpillar’s droppings, which are made up of both the digestive and the urinary residues. ”

“ III. Carpogamy: the sexual organs are (as a rule) differentiated into male and female: the protoplasm of the unicellular or multicellular female organ (archicarp, procarp) is never differentiated into an oosphere: in many cases definite male cells, spermatia, are produced and are set free, but they are not ciliated, and frequently have a cell-wall: the process is fertilization: the product is a fructification derived essentially from the female organ containing several (sometimes very many) spores (carpospores) : characteristic of the Red Algae and of the Ascomycetous Fungi. ”

“ Physarum compressum List., Mycetozoa, 2nd ed., p. 70.
Sporangia more or less scattered, compressed-globose, or compressed-reniform, i. e. often umbilicate, stipitate, sessile, or elongate as if plasmodiocarpous, calcareous, white or ashen; peridium thin, covered with squamules, opening irregularly, usually by apical cleft; stipe, when present, short, stout, more or less sulcate, dark brown or ashen; capillitium a rather loose net, the nodules white, variable in size and shape; spores purplish-brown, delicately roughened, about 10–12.5 μ. ”

“ These exceptions occur chiefly in the genus Capparis, which, as it is at present constituted, includes species differing from each other in having an ovarium with from two to eight placentæ, and, consequently, composed of an equal number of pistilla. Capparis spinosa is the most decided instance of the increased number of placentæ, and this, as well as some other nearly related species, are also remarkable in having septa subdividing the placentæ, and uniting in the centre of the compound ovarium. ”

“ The caper plant is a trailing shrub, belonging to the Mediterranean region, resembling in habit the common bramble, and having handsome flowers of a pinkish white, with four petals, and numerous long tassel-like stamens. The leaves are simple and ovate, with spiny stipules. The plant is cultivated in Sicily and the south of France; and in commerce capers are valued according to the period at which the buds are gathered and preserved. ”

“ Sporangia small, about 1 mm. high when unexpanded, crowded in clusters of varying size, dull red or brownish, stipitate; the peridium evanescent except the cup; stipe very short, concolorous, plicate as the cup, or both smooth and unmarked; capillitium centrally attached, slowly expanded, open-meshed, dense, the threads even, 5–6 μ wide, expanded in globose, spinulose, or papillate-reticulate nodules, especially at points of intersection, marked everywhere by close-set, transverse, sharp-edged ridges, which encircle the thread and show no trace of spiral arrangement ”

“ I happen to have handy a Great Capricorn, with powerful claws and mandibles. That the long-horned insect is a peaceful creature I am well aware; but the Scarites does not know it; on the sands of the shore he has never encountered such a colossus as this, who is capable of impressing less timid creatures than he. Fear of the unknown will merely aggravate the situation.
Guided by the tip of my straw, the Capricorn sets his foot upon the prostrate insect. The Scarites' tarsi begin to quiver immediately. ”

“ Later, students of the specimens preserved by Mr. Phillips, concur that we have to do not with a diderma, but with a craterium, Lister, or physarum, Massee. There seems no reason why we should not respect the decision of Massee, whose description is here quoted in form somewhat abridged. The peridium is about as double as in the many physarums, not more so; the inner membrane so delicate as only occasionally to be revealed except to scrutiny most searching. But the appearance as a whole is as of some brown diderma; only the calcareous capillitium abides to prevent mistaken reference. ”

“ This grub, so poor in organs of sensation, gives us much to think about. It knows that the coming Beetle will not be able to cut himself a road through the oak, and it therefore opens one for him at its own risk and peril. It knows that the Capricorn, in his stiff armour, will never be able to turn round and make for the opening of the cell; and it takes care to fall into its sleep of transformation with its head towards the door. It knows how soft the pupa’s flesh will be, and it upholsters the bedroom with velvet. ”

“ They may occur singly or be combined into a net, they may be terete or flat, attached to the peridial wall or free, simple or adorned with bands or spires and knobs in every variety, uniform or profusely knotted and thickened at intervals, and burdened with calcic particles. In many cases, the capillitium contributes materially to the dispersal of the spores; in others, it doubtless contributes mechanically to the support of the peridial wall, and renders so far persistent the delicate sporangium. ”

“ The Capricorn larva strengthens its chisels with a stout, black, horny armour that surrounds the mouth; yet, apart from its skull and its equipment of tools, this grub has a skin as fine as satin and as white as ivory. This dead white is caused by a thick layer of grease, which one would not expect a diet of wood to [212] produce in the animal. True, it has nothing to do, at every hour of the day and night, but gnaw. The quantity of wood that passes into its stomach makes up for the lack of nourishing qualities. ”

“ Thick-set, round, dumpy, slow of gait, the Spanish Copris is certainly not equal to the athletic performances of the Sacred Beetle. The legs, of very middling length and folded under the belly at the least alarm, bear no comparison with the stilts of the pill-rollers. Their stiff and stunted form alone is enough to tell us that the insect would not care to wander about hampered by a rolling ball.
The Copris is, in point of fact, of a sedentary habit. [65] Once he has found his provisions, at night or in the evening twilight, he digs a burrow under the heap. ”

“ The capillitium is more dense than in any other species and expands less. The stipe is about equal to the expanded capillitium, unusually long. The plasmodium occurs in rotten wood, especially species of Tilia, is gray and, judging from the number of sporangia found in one place, scanty. ”

“ At times he takes up a position on some lofty bough with the evident intention of challenging his rivals, who quickly respond to the provocation; ere long they join in combat upon the ground, leaping and rushing upon one another in their blind rage, and using bills, wings, and claws as weapons of offence. The flight of the Capercaillie is heavy though strong. The food consists chiefly of young pine-shoots, which are apt to give the flesh a flavour of turpentine, but includes berries, insects, and worms. ”

“ This is the Capricorn's exit-hole. The insect will have but to file the screen a little with its mandibles, to bump against it with its forehead, in order to bring it down; it will even have nothing to do when the window is free, as often happens. The unskilled carpenter, burdened with his extravagant head-dress, will emerge from the darkness through this opening when the summer heats arrive. ”

“ The capillitium is variable both in the degree of smoothness presented, and the number of free ends, and the amount of branching. The spores in all specimens we have examined are remarkably constant in size and surface. In typical specimens free ends are easily discoverable, the branching forms a definite net, and the perfectly formed capillitial thread is smooth. In some American forms—developed under less favorable circumstances?—the net is less determined, the free ends are many, and the spirals minutely rough. ”

“ The caper blossoms in summer, and retains its verdure till the setting of the Vergiliæ; it thrives the best of all in a sandy soil. As to the bad qualities of the caper which grows in the parts beyond the sea, we have already1188 enlarged upon them when speaking of the exotic shrubs. ”

“ When newly formed, the sporangia have a peculiar rosy or flesh-colored metallic tint, which is all their own. Within a short time this color passes, and most of the material comes from the field brownish or ochraceous in color. Typical sporangia are spherical on distinct short stipes; when crowded, the shape is of course less definite. The capillitium never expands as in Arcyria, but, exposed by the vanishing upper wall, remains a spherical mass resting upon the shallow cup-like base of the peridium. ”

“ The hypothallus, stout, pellucid silvery, betimes iridescent, when turned to the light, easily separable from the substratum, bears the columellae, dusky, thin, hair-like, aggregate and yet entirely free, and everywhere circinately convergent, depressed by the superimposed burden, hence decumbent: ... the capillitium loosely interwoven, coalesces to a common mass whose smooth and shining surface shows above, regularly disposed minute papillae, the apices of individual sporangia. ”

“ Sporangia gregarious, scattered, or more often crowded, sessile, depressed-spherical, sometimes ellipsoidal or elongate, white, the outer peridium crustaceous, chalky, smooth and fragile, the inner distinct, delicate, ochraceous; hypothallus scant or none; columella well developed, globose or hemispherical, orange-tinted or ochraceous; capillitium [Pg 138] abundant, made of threads of two sorts, some purplish or dusky, with pale extremities, uneven, others more delicate and colorless, and with wart-like thickenings, all sparingly branched; spores violet-brown, minutely roughened, 9–10 μ. ”

“ The coronet of hooks converts the membranous or abdominal legs of true caterpillars into efficient instruments of prehension, and they accordingly fix their body by means of them to the plane of position, while the head and anterior part remain free. The abdominal legs of the others, on the contrary, are mere points of support, incapable of clinging to an object, and the larva consequently fixes itself by its pectoral or forelegs, which are much developed for the purpose. ”

“ Related, no doubt, to C. longa, but differing in habit, stature, as in texture and structure of the capillitium. In C. longa the inner net is extremely simple,—a row or two of meshes at most, and the radiating branches are long and straight; in the species before us the inner network is well developed, and the radiating branches proportionately shorter and abundantly branching, with pale or white free tips. ”

“ Microscopic Structure—The carpels consist of an external, loose, dark brown layer and a thick inner wall, separated by fibro-vascular bundles. The outer layer exhibits numerous large cells, containing pale yellow volatile oil. The inner wall of the carpels consists of woody prosenchyme in those parts which are exterior to the seed cavity, and especially in the shining walls laid bare by the splitting of the ventral suture. The inner surface of the carpel is entirely composed of sclerenchyme. ”

“ Carpenter asserts that a decomposition of a portion of the absorbed material is the only conceivable source of the large quantity they are constantly giving out, and ascribes the very rapid growth of these plants to a "retrograde metamorphosis." The substances which enter into the new growth are already prepared by the foster-plant, and we find the parasite incapable of forming any new combination through the agency of light. ”

“ For this reason they are of no use whatever for walking; they do not even bear upon the supporting surface, being kept off it by the obesity of the chest. The organs of locomotion are something altogether different. The grub of the Capricorn moves at the same time on its back and belly; instead of the useless legs of the thorax, it has a walking-apparatus almost resembling feet, which appear, contrary to every rule, on the dorsal surface.
The first seven segments of the abdomen have, both above and below, a four-sided facet, bristling with rough protuberances. ”

“ The part played by the barbed hairs, those atoms which the least movement of the air disseminates in all directions, is confined to conveying to our face and hands the irritant substance in which they are impregnated. Their barbs hold them in place and thus permit [144] the virus to act. It is even probable that, by means of slight scratches which would otherwise pass unnoticed, they assist the action of the stinging fluid.
Shortly after handling the Processionaries, a delicate epidermis becomes tumefied, red and painful. Without being immediate, the action of the caterpillar is prompt. ”

“ The distinction between the upper and lower peridium would suggest Craterium, but the internal structure is not at all Craterium-like. The capillitium is typically of Physarum. The color suggests P. leucophaeum violascens Rost. From this species it is at once distinguished by its much longer sporangia, larger and rougher spores.
Mexico; C. L. Smith: Sure to be again collected once that unhappy country shall again open its forests to research. ”