Lae 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 189 
be very glad to know 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 flesh, the patient dies. It is believed that 
the Filarias have two modes of propagation: first, 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 I 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. Reeks 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. 
