NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 



15 



2 to 3.} inches ; thickness from | to ^ line. Length of males from 

 13 to 16 lines ; thickness from ^ to ^ line. 



Prof. Leidy further remarked that Mr. Thomas Meehan had 

 submitted to his examination some worms which had been found 

 in an apple. They consisted of one entire individual and the 

 anterior half of a second, and apparently pertain to the Mermis 

 acuminata, along thread-worm which has been discovered infesting 

 the larvae of many insects. Among others it is parasitic in the 

 larva of the codling-moth, or fruit-moth of the apple, which readily 

 accounts for its presence in the fruit. Twenty-five years ago 

 (Proc. 1850, 117) he had described a worm, belonging to the col- 

 lection of the Academy, and labelled as having been obtained from 



a child's mouth, which was evidently the same 

 Fig. 1. species. It having been in a child's mouth is 



probably to be explained by supposing that 

 the child had eaten an infected apple. 



The characters of the present specimens of 

 the worm, both females, are as follows : Body 

 filiform, pale fuscous, narrower anteriorly. 

 Head conical, truncate, with the mouth simple 

 and unarmed. Caudal extremity thicker than 

 the head, obtusely rounded, and furnished with 

 a minute spur-like process. Length 5 inches 

 8 lines ; cephalic end at mouth T ^ mm. ; a short distance below \ 



Head. 



Tail 



mm. 



middle of body f mm.; near caudal end mm. 



mucro 



T2 



mm. long, ^ mm. thick. 



From an Australian wombat, which recently died at the 

 Zoological Garden, Prof. Leidy had obtained from the stomach 

 two specimens of a tapeworm of the genus Taenia. They are 

 three inches long, and about four lines broad at the last joint. 



The characters are as follows: 

 Fig. .2. Entire worm elongated and com- 



pressed pyramidal. Head quad- 

 rate, narrowing below, convex 

 above, furnished laterally with 

 four prominent hemispherical 

 bothria. Neck short, constricted. 

 Segments of the body very short 

 and wide, campanulate with the 

 projecting points giving the body 

 laterally a serrate appearance. 

 From the intermediate joints a 

 narrow conical papilla protruded 

 from each side of the same joint, 

 but none could be made to pro- 

 trude from the back joints, from 

 which globular white ova were 

 expressed measuring 0.052 mm. 

 segments i inch from head. 9 diain. diameter. Head f of a line in 



Head. 12 diam. 



