242 Species of Gordix, Fildria Forficulce, 



Gordix, and Fildria Forficulce, are reputed to be parasitic in 

 the Interior, or in the Substance, of other Species of Animals. 



Fildria Forficulce. In III. 149. and 459., are figures of 

 this species, and notices of its person and habits, and men- 

 tions of species of animals that it had been known to inhabit. 



Gordius aquaticus, and Species of Gordius. — Do not such of 

 the following instances as relate to insects belong rather to 

 Filaria Forficulae, than to Gordius aquaticus? In II. 211., it 

 is stated, that Gordius aquaticus has been known to inhabit 

 insects; in II. 212., Acrida (by error ^4'cnida) viridissima; 

 in IV. 95., that several were found with one part inside, the 

 other outside, the wall of the stomach, so as to perforate the 

 wall, of a live common frog that, when caught, appeared to 

 be in a sickly and disabled state ; in IV. 477., in " the com- 

 mon black beetle ;" and in other cases, as under. 



I have frequently found, in the spring and summer months, 

 the common black garden beetle, when crushed by the foot, 

 or otherwise, to have contained one, and sometimes two worms 

 of about the size of a hog's bristle, several inches long, curi- 

 ously coiled up, and possessing animation, as I have several 

 times kept them alive in water for a length of time. — W. 

 Godsall, Nurseryman. Hereford, Sept. 29. 1832. 



II. 211. Mr. Lambert has recorded, in the Linn. Soc. 

 Trans., an instance of a Gordius taken from Carabus hortensis. 

 I hope soon to give a satisfactory account of the dreaded 

 Guinea worm, common, in certain years, in the dry islands of 

 this government, but never troublesome in St. Vincent. — 

 Lansdoxm Guilding. St. Vincent, May 1. 1830. 



In the Entomologia Edinensis, the volume on Coleoptera, 

 is quoted a statement to the amount, that the beetles of the 

 family Harpalidae " are greatly infected with Gordii," on Mr. 

 Stephens's testimony; and a statement, that Mr. Kirby, on 

 immersing an individual of Harpalus ae'neus Gyllenhall in 

 hot water, observed an intestinal worm, thicker than a horse- 

 hair, and of a brown colour, to become protruded. This is 

 not called a species of Gordius, nor at all denominated. (Ent. 

 ■ Edin., Coleoptera.) 



J. G. Jeffreys, Esq., has stated, in his " Synopsis of the 

 Testaceous Pneumobranchous Mollusca of Great Britain," 

 published in Lin. Soc. Trans., vol. 16,, the following informa- 

 tion on "a minute slender species of Gordius." All the 

 species of Limneus " may be truly termed amphibious, since 

 the nature of their food (animal matter in different stages of 

 putridity) frequently obliges them to seek it on wet and marshy 

 ground. During the spring, they are greatly infested with a 

 minute slender species of Gordius, specimens of which, in 



t io 



