Mr. Brightwell on Filarie and Insects. 399 
is blunter than the head, and of the same colour as the rest of the body. 
The oviform bodies lie in conglomerated little masses in the middle part 
of the canal, but in the other parts assume nearly the form of a string of 
beads. On subjecting a small section of this to a high power in a com- 
pound microscope, the little globules appeared depressed in the centre, 
and darkest on one side. 
It is natural to enquire how these worms find access to the bodies of 
insects coated in mail of such proof as the Carabide are encased in. 
It seems evident they cannot enter by the mouth, as the Carabide 
greedily cut up and devour them. Do they not (after the manner of the 
Gordius Medinensis) penetrate and lodge themselyes in the bodies of 
the Carabide upon their first emerging from the pupa into the imago 
state? At this time we know the bodies of the Carabide are so soft as 
to be easily penetrated, and that they remain some time in this state con- 
cealed in situations where these worms are not unlikely to be found. 
Mr. Jeffreys, in his valuable Synopsis of the Testaceous Pneumo- 
nobranchous Mollusca of Great Britain, in the last part of the “ Trans- 
“< actions of the Linnean Society,”’ has stated some facts, which appear 
to render this opinion probable, and the same Naturalist has also sus- 
pected that the Gordii are the food of the insectivorous Water Beetles, 
He says, “ All the mhabitants of this genus (Limneus) may be truly 
** termed amphibious, since the nature of their food frequently obliges 
them to seek it on wet and marshy ground, During the spring they 
are greatly infested by a minute slender species of Gordius which, in 
« number from two to ten, attach themselves to the interior of the mantle 
“ near its connection with the neck of the animal. This troublesome 
‘* parasite does not seem to be stationary, since I have not unfrequently 
‘* observed it to change its place and take up perhaps more commo- 
« dious quarters in another shell. It probably constitutes part of the 
** food of the smaller Dytiscide, After I had put two sorts (the Dyt, 
* trifidus and Dyt. crassicornis/ into the glass vessel where the Limnei 
“« were kept I could not detect any signs of the Gordii: though in other 
* cases | have known them to survive, even after their guardians had 
* begun to putrify.”’ 
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« 
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