THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 189 



be very glad to liuow its name and character. If you could 

 give us any information about its habits, &c., we should take 

 it as a great favour. 



[The creature is a Filaria, or thread-worm ; one of the 

 section of Entozoa, or intestinal worms. I regret to say that 

 their history is very imperfectly known to me ; but during the 

 greater portion of their lives they are certainly parasitic : 

 man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and insects, are subject to 

 their attacks. I have repeatedly found them protruding from 

 the anus of a common ground-beetle, known to entomologists 

 as Feronia madida : they not unfrequently exceed the beetle 

 three or four times in length ; indeed, one of them inhabiting 

 man, and called the guinea-worm (Filaria madinensis), is 

 sometimes three feet in length. This species is found 

 in Africa, and inhabits the legs and feet of men, causing 

 tumours and great suffering : it is extracted by a curious 

 process: one end of the worm is seized with forceps and 

 wound round a stick, which process of winding is continued 

 day after day, until the whole is extracted ; of course the 

 patient has to keep quiet during the whole time. If 

 during the operation the worm breaks, a portion remain- 

 ing in the ilesh, the patient dies. It is believed that 

 the Filarias have two modes of propagation : Jirst, by 

 division, as when a portion is broken off from the body and 

 becomes an independent animal ; and secondly, by eggs, 

 which are laid in water, and the young, becoming attached 

 to aquatic animals, are swallowed by birds, and thus find 

 their way to a suitable receptacle for development. It will be 

 observed that 1 do not state this of my own knowledge, but 

 simply from having read it. — Edward Newman. 



Henry Reeks. — Fallen Pears. — Mr. Fitch informs me that 

 the pear-maggot, which was the subject of a query by 

 Mr. Keeks in the July number (Entom. viii. 167), is the work 

 of Cecidomyia nigra. Mr. Murray, who has prepared a case 

 for the Bethnal Green Museum, has illustrated with models 

 the mischief-maker at work. He derives his information 

 from Taschenberg, who, in his ' Entomologie fur Gartner,' 

 gives its life-history at p. 364. — Edward Newman. 



J. Purdue. — Will you please to inform me what part 

 of an English inch is the line, spoken of in measuring 

 beetles, &c. 



