1895-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 249 



The worm was discovered, in 1838, by Leon Dufour, who was 

 inclined to look upon it as an insect-larva. Von Siebold, how- 

 ever, afterwards showed that true nematodes develop from the 

 egg of this monstrosity, and its systematic position was thus made 

 somewhat more clear. The worm was then observed by various 

 workers, but no clear explanation of the paradoxical organism 

 could be given. Lubbock afterwards noticed that an almost 

 microscopic nematode was frequently found attached near one 

 end of the parasitic structure, and Schneider suggested that the 

 larger tube-like structure was an organ which had become more 

 or less independent of the original body. Prof. Rudolf Leuckart* 

 (1887), to whom science owes the solution of so many of the 

 riddles which confront the helminthologist, finally made a very 

 thorough study of the worm, together with another worm, show- 

 ing the same tendency to a somewhat lesser degree, and succeeded 

 in clearing up this gynecological mystery. 



The following is an abridged account of the parasite, and those 

 who desire to examine* more closely into the details of the sub- 

 ject are referred to Leuckart's magnificent monograph. 



The males and females of Spherularia bombi^ro. almost micro- 

 scopic ; they live in moist earth and, although their intestinal 

 system is not of such a structure as to allow of their taking food, 

 they may live for months, probably using the reserve material 

 stored up during their inter-uterine existence. Their reproduc- 

 tive organs come to functional development and the animals 

 copulate; after copulation the males die, the females alone living 

 to represent the species. 



The females then watch their chance to obtain a "widow's 

 home" for the Winter; they enter the female Humble-Bee which 

 is about to hibernate, and in the body-cavity of this insect they 

 continue their curious development. The vagina gradually ev.i- 

 inates through the vulva, taking with it the entire sexual appa- 

 ratus, and the greater part of the intestine; this evaginated pur 

 tion develops to an enormous extent, attaining in many cases 20 

 mm. in length by i mm. in breadth, but remains attached for a 

 long time to the almost microscopic body of the original worm 

 at the vulva, or possibly it would be better to say that the body 

 of the female remains attached at the vulva to its cvaginated 



* 1887 Neue Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Banes u. d. Lehensgeschichte der Nematoden; 

 Abli. d. math.-phys. Cl. Kgl. Sachs. Ges d. Wiss. pp. 565-704, 3 Taf. 



