108 Dr. Fr. Meinert on the Ugimyia- Larva. 



worthy of credit. I could not imagine that the point no. 6, 

 concerning the formation of the cup and the maggot's con- 

 nexion with the tracheal system of the silkworm, was in 

 accordance with the real facts. 



Therefore, deeming it possible to study these facts on 

 specimens preserved in alcohol, I addressed myself to the 

 Greek Northern Telegraph Company, and was met with the 

 utmost kindness on the part of the Company's President, 

 Mr. Tietgen. A short time afterwards I received from one 

 of the officers of the Company, its Superintendent at 

 Nagasaki, Mr. C. Kragh, a parcel containing, besides nume- 

 rous maggots and some pupae and imagines of the TJgimyia^ 

 also two specimens of the silkworm preserved in alcohol. 

 One of these specimens was intact, but with a dark brown 

 spot surrounding one of its stigmata ; the other was cut 

 open longitudinally, and a maggot was seen projecting its 

 anterior end from the mouth of a sort of cup fastened to the 

 inner surface of the silkworm's skin. I feel highly indebted 

 to Mr. C. Kragh for his courtesy, and I beg to express my 

 sincerest thanks. 



In the first place I cut open the silkworm that was intact, 

 and a half-grown maggot (its length being about 5*5 

 millim.) was found lying between the skin and the digestive 

 canal of the silkworm. But as for the rest, nothing like a 

 cup was to be seen, nor was the rear end of the maggot situated 

 inside the stigma surrounded by the dark spot. On the 

 contrary, the maggot was lying quite freely, as it were just 

 moulded into the mass of fat, its head projecting about 1*5 

 millim. beyond the anterior edge of the dark spot, while its 

 distance from the silkworm's skin was something like 2 or H 

 millim. The rear end of the maggot certainly had approached 

 one of the hindmost stigmata of its host; but the stigma in 

 question was not situated in the centre of any spot, and no 

 trace of a cup was to be found. Besides, a mass of fat 

 covering the rear end of the maggot entirely closed the stig- 

 mata of the parasite. 



Thereupon I turned my attention to the other specimen, 

 with the body cut open and the maggot peeping out from the 

 cup ; but I soon observed that the maggot was glued to the 

 bottom of the cup, a way of mounting, however, which in 

 such preparations made for public instruction very often can- 

 not be avoided. 



This examination of the two silkworms not being sufficient 

 to satisfactorily solve the question, I again addressed the 

 Superintendent, Mr. Kragh, who had the extreme courtesy 

 to send me a new supply of about a hundred cocoons with 



