Salt Lake Telegram | 1938-01-08 | Page 12 | Strange as it Seems by John Hix

I I STRANGE AS IT SEEMS By John Jahn H His Hix 1 A w p I t j EE 5 ie rAt IA W Ay o 1 5 15 Ic goM 7 U H 1 T fo EUROPE ANO t 1 a rt c ca rte t 1 f ACA RP NJ v a ANIMAL OR OB VEGETABLE The a small caterpillar of New Zealand actually turns Into a plant Known to scientists as the llis it is always found at the foot of a large myrtle tree known to natives as the rata The caterpillar buries itself in the ground where it lives until it t attains full growth Then a remarkable transformation takes place From the the back of its neck a slender plant rises growing to a height of six to eight inches Its roots imbed themselves in the caterpillar sucking the animals animal's life blood and filling every crevice with faithful accuracy The result is a plant whose root has assumed the shape of an animal and which actually has grown out of it it The explanation of this freak of nature is that spores of a fungus fast fasten n to the back of the caterpillars caterpillar's head where a sticky liquid issues from its body These grow developing into the fungus plant Spores from the new plant are scattered to be similarly incubated by another repeating the amazing vegetable animal-vegetable life cycle Copyright 1938 for The Telegram