24 



Note on Mermis Nigrescens. 



By R. T. Lewis, F.R.M.S. 



Bead June 27th, 1884. 



Those members of the Quekett Club who are old enough in that 

 relationship to remember its earlier proceedings, will perhaps recol- 

 lect that at the Ordinary Meeting in August, 1867, a paper was 

 read " On Mermis Nigrescens," a hair worm which at that time 

 was attracting considerable attention. At that remote period of 

 our history the Quekett did not possess a Journal of its own, but 

 the paper in question was preserved from oblivion by the then 

 Editor of " Science Gossip " — our now respected President. 



Referring to the paper as it appeared in that periodical for 

 October, 1867, it seems that on the 2nd of June in that year a 

 thunderstorm occurred, accompanied by heavy rainfall, and that 

 on the following morning immense numbers of these worms were 

 found upon trees and shrubs, as well as on the grass and on the 

 soil, throughout the counties of Sussex, Kent, Surrey, and Middle- 

 sex. The facts were mentioned at the time at the Entomological and 

 Linnean Societies, as well as the Quekett Microscopical Club ; and 

 specimens were exhibited here which had been forwarded by a 

 friend at Bognor. It was also stated that similar sudden appear- 

 ances of these worms in large numbers occurred in the years 1781, 

 1832, and 1845 — on each occasion in the month of June, and after 

 thunderstorms with heavy rainfall. During the 17 years which 

 have intervened my enquiries for further specimens of these 

 creatures have proved fruitless, but on the 5th of June, 1884, Ave 

 were visited with a severe thunderstorm, followed by heavy rainfall, 

 which continued without interruption for about 24 hours ; and on 

 the following day, whilst stooping to remove a weed from a flower- 

 bed, my attention was arrested by Mermis Nigrescens, suspended by 

 the tail from a carnation plant, and waving its slender body to and 

 fro in the air. Further search speedily resulted in the discovery of 



