PACKARD.] PARASITES OF THE LOCUST. 667 



surrounded witli circular wrinkles of a bripjht brovrn, besprinkled with broad spots of 

 au obscure brown ; extremities of the body blackish. Length of the female, 11^ inches ; 

 thickness, about one-half of a line. North America, British Museum. 



Gordius reticula.tua Villot. — Anterior extremity ending in a sharp point. Diameter of 

 the body increasing from the anterior end to the posterior extremity, which terminates 

 in a truncated point. Auo-geuital aperture broad. Maroon-brown. A dorsal and ven- 

 tral band of a darker brown. Epideimis .areolated ; areo]es forming a net-work, with 

 irregular and unequal meshes, having a mean diameter of 10 millfemes of a millimeter. 

 A simple border of small papilke around the areoles. Length, about 14 inches; thick- 

 ness, 1 millimeter. California, Museum ot Paris (a single individual). 



I have identitied a specimen of this species from California, sent by Mr. Henry Ed- 

 wards to the Museum of the Peabody Academy of Science. 



Gordius varius lueUly (PlateLXIII,P"'ig. 6, /(). — Body very long, filiform, attenuated at 

 each extremity, especially at the anterior ; of a dirty-white yellowish-brown, also very 

 black, shining, areolated, areoles irregularly pentagonal. Head surrounded with an ob- 

 scure brown or black ring, obliquely truncated and terminated by a transparent cap. 

 Mouth situated at the base of this cap. Posterior extremity of the male reflected, ter- 

 minated by two conical, i-ecurved, obtuse, and divergent lobes.* Posterior extremity 

 of the female trilobed, lobes almost elliptical, of which one is straighter than the 

 other. Length of male, 4-Gi inches ; thickness, ^J of a line; length of a female, 5-12 

 inches; thickness, J—?- of a line. 



Uahitat: Very common in the rivers of North America 'Eancocas, Augusta, Schuyl- 

 kill, Delaware). Observed, also, in the Niagara by Agassiz ; in the Susquehanna and 

 Lake Champlain by Baird. 



. The American species of biennis. — Although the genus Mermis is very 

 simihir iu external appearance to Gordius, it differs greatly in internal 

 structure, and in the embryo being unarmed and not undergoing a met- 

 amorphosis. The species, however, are parasitic in various insects. I 

 quote the following generic characters from Carus's Hand-Book of 

 Zoology, giving a free translation for the use of the American student: 



Gordim. — Head without papillse ; a short sesophagus opening into the cellular con- 

 tents of the body; male with forked tail; genital opening between the forks; no 

 spiculum, but with spines ; female opening on the end of the tail, entire, two or three 

 pointed ; Avithout any lateral expansions (seiten felder). 



Mermis. — Head beset with papillte ; a long oesophagal tube sunk in the cellular con- 

 tents of the body (intestine?) ; male with an undivided tail-end, with several rows of 

 papillte and two spiculae ; female genital opening in the middle of the body, with lat- 

 eral expansions. 



In both genera the intestine ends in a blind sac, there being no anus. 



Mermis elongaia held J. i — Yellowish-white, and from 6 to 8 inches in length. New 

 Jersey. 



J/ermiscrasstcajtd'xfa Leidy.t— Pure white, with a peculiar tubercular thickening of 

 the integument upon the caudal extremity, 8 inches in length. Philadelphia. 



Mermis acuminata Leidy.^^Female. Body filiform, pale fuscous, narrower anteriorly. 

 Head conical, truncate, with the mouth simple and unarmed. Caudal extremity 

 thicker than the head, obtusely rounded, and furnished with a minute spur-like process 

 Length, 5 inches 8 lines ; cephalic end at mouth, i*^'"'" ; a short distance below, i°"" . 

 middle of body, ^""^ ; near caudal end, |^""» ; mucro, i^""" long, •55'"" thick. Parasitic 

 in thelarvre of the coddling moth {Carpoca^ysa 2yovionella), Philadelphia and Long Island, 

 N. Y. Professor Riley informs me that he had previously to the publication of Professor 

 Leidy's article found a hair-worm in the body of a coddling worm. Professor Leidy has 

 observed a white hair-worm (Mermis sp. ?) proceeding from the Carolina grasshopper, 

 Oedipoda Carolina (Linn.), while the latter was struggling in a ditch into w^hich it had 

 jumped from being alarmed. I'erhaps in this way we may account for the occasional 

 appearance of a Gordius in a drinking-trough or a puddle on the road. (Amer. Ent., 

 ii, 195.) 



* In his article, "The Gordius or hair-worm" (American Entomologist, ii, 193, 

 1870), Professor Leidy describes, under the name of Gordius longilohatus, a form which 

 he regards as a distinct species, being slenderer than the true varius, with the forks of 

 the tail two or three times the length of the thickness of the body, and the forks do 

 not include at their base a. crescentic fold, as iu the former. The genital pore is a 

 little ia advance of the division of the tail. 



t Proceedings Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1852, v, 2G3. 



t The same, p. 263. 



$ Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1875, 14. 



