RESEARCHES IN HELMINTHOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGY. IO7 



172. Mermis Robiista, Leidy. 



Filaria lycoso", Haldeman. Icong. Encyc, ii, Zool., 48. Body 

 cylindrical, robust, rigid, smooth, and shining, attenuated towards 

 the extremities ; most narrowed anteriorly. Head conical, caudal 

 extremity obtuse, imperforate. 



I found one specimen, of a pale pinkish white, 3 inches in length 

 and I ■4th of a line in breadth, which crept from the abdomen of a 

 species of Lycosa, with four stripes on the cephalothorax and three 

 on the abdomen, from New Jersey. The specimen described by 

 Mr. Haldeman was pale reddish and over five inches in length by 

 2-5ths of a line in breadth, and was obtained from Lycosa scutulata f 

 Hentz, in Pennsylvania. 



[September, 1856. No. 164. See Bibliography.] 



Dr. Leidy also directed the attention of the members to .several 

 shells of the oyster and clam (Ostrca virgi)ua)ia and P^eniis incrce- 

 naria) much perforated, which are common on the ocean shore, 

 where they are noticed by all visitors. Dr. L. had for a long time 

 suspected that the perforations were due to some molluscous animal 

 or a worm, and he had frequently sought for them. The last sum- 

 mer, in dredging, in company with Mr. Ashmead and Prof. Baird, 

 on an old oyster bed at Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, a large 

 number of these perforated shells were obtained, and all of them 

 were observed to be occupied by a sulphur yellow sponge of the 

 genus Cliona. This boring sponge forms an extensive system of 

 galleries between the outer and inner layers of the shells, and pro- 

 trudes through the perforations of the latter tubular proces.ses, from 

 one to two lines long and one-half to three-fourths of a line wide. 

 The tubes are of two kinds, the most numerous being cylindrical 

 and expanded at the orifice in a corolla form, with their margin thin, 

 translucent, entire, veined with more opaque lines, and with the 

 throat bristling with .silicious spiculse. The second kind of tubes 

 are comparatively few, about as one to thirty of the other, and are 

 shorter, wider, not expanded at the orifice, and the throat unob- 

 structed with spiculse. Some of the second variety of tubes are con- 

 stituted of a confluent pair, the throat of which bifurcates at the 

 bottom. Both kinds of the tubes are slightly contractile, and under 

 irritation may gradually a.ssume the appearance of superficial wart- 

 like eminences within the perforations of the shell occupied by the 

 sponge. Water obtains access to the interior of the latter through 

 the more numerous tubes, and is expelled in quite active currents 

 from the wider tubes. 



