Anguillulidae 173 



The nematodes pass through one generation every 4 or 5 days, and 

 must be subcultured every 2 weeks, by which time most of the yeast in 

 the culture has been consumed. 



Most of the nematode strains died out after the seventh or eighth 

 transfer, i.e., after 14 to 16 weeks in culture, during which time from 21 

 to 32 generations had been produced. The cultures died out because, 

 although the females of the last culture passage were normal in size and 

 shape, their ovaries failed to mature and no young were produced. 

 However, by permitting worms from the sixth transfer to infect Japanese 

 beetle grubs and to go through several generations in their natural hosts, 

 worms could be recovered which could again be grown in culture through 

 7 or 8 transfers. 



Recently (Glaser, unpublished) it has been found possible to culture 

 the worms indefinitely by adding small amounts of powdered ovarian 

 substance to the culture plates. 



Free-living soil nematodes do not grow at all under the conditions 

 suitable for Neoaplectana. [See p. 174.] 



Bibliography 

 Glaser, R. W. 1931. The cultivation of a nematode parasite of an insect. Science 



73:6i4- 

 1932. Studies on Neoaplectana glaseri, a nematode parasite of the 



Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) . N. J. Dept. of Agric. Circular No. 211. 



CULTURING PARASITIC NEMATODE LARVAE FROM 

 SILPHIDS AND RELATED INSECTS 



C. G. Dobrovolny, University of Michigan 



THE larvae of these oviparous nematodes are parasitic in the body 

 cavity of silphids and the mature worms are free-living. The worms 

 were successfully reared in cultures. 



The larvae were freed from the body cavity of the silphids and cul- 

 tured in tap water. Most of the worms died in too dilute and in too 

 concentrated cultures. It was further observed that the mortality of 

 larvae cultured in Syracuse watch glasses which were kept full of water 

 was 100%. Best results were obtained by keeping the larvae in culture 

 media of wet sand and macerated beetles. 



Family anguillulidae 



ANGUILLA ACETI* 



Anguilla aceti is a very satisfactory subject for type study in biology, 

 zoology, and parasitology classes. It may be procured at any time of 



♦Abstracted from an article in Science 74:390, 1931. by George Zebrowski, Buck 

 Creek, Indiana. 



