344 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY, 

 genera and species, and to bear the title "Index Avium Amer- 



icanorum." 



AMERICAN KING-CRAB ON THE EUROPEAN COAST. 



According to Mr. Edward Newman, in a communication 

 to the Field, a fine specimen of the American king-crab, Li- 

 mulus polyphemus^ was taken in July last by the Yarmouth 

 trawl-boats about eleven miles off* the Schelling Light, on 

 the Dutch coast, at least four or five having been taken in all 

 during the summer. Mr. Newman remarks that as long ago 

 as the 26th of April a report appeared that a specimen of 

 this crab had been taken in North Wales, which was reject- 

 ed by naturalists on account of the extreme improbability 

 that this familiar American animal should be found on the 

 European shores. 19 A, November 15, 1873, 511. 



AN " ARMY WORM." 



A correspondent of a daily paper recently called attention 

 to a phenomenon which has greatly excited his curiosity, 

 and which he refers to as something entirely unheard of. 

 This, which he calls a combination snake, or "army worm," 

 he describes as at first sight resembling a snake ten feet in 

 length, tapering regularly from the middle toward the head 

 and the tail, and moving along slowly. Supposing it to be 

 a serpent, he was astonished to see the creature, on reaching 

 a stone, divide sometimes into two or three heads, which sub- 

 sequently were reunited into the original snake. On exam- 

 ining this peculiar body more closely, to his astonishment he 

 found that it was composed of small worms, about three 

 eighths of an inch in length, and about the thickness of a 

 pin. One of these constituted the entire extremity of the 

 figure ; then two or three lapped on to it for two thirds of 

 its length, and on them lapped others, increasing the thick- 

 ness of the "snake" until it became about the size of a man's 

 thumb in the middle, and tapering off toward the other end 

 in a similar manner. 



This object, although rare, is by no means unknown to 

 naturalists. Its occurrence is more frequently recorded in 

 Europe than in the United States. It consists, in reality, of 

 the larvae of an insect of the order of flies, probably belong- 

 ing to the genus Sciara of the Mycetophilidce. Professor 



