8 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
red worm coiled up near the heart. I closed up the fish and 
folded it in paper, intending, as I did afterward, to take it to 
Mr. Blackford until we could hold an inquest. In the meantime 
some friends came to the pond. I went to show them the fish 
and worm, but, to my surprise, the worm was gone. I searched 
all the intestines, but without success, and was about giving up 
the search when, noticing a small swelling on the skin of the fish 
close to the ventral fin, about the size of a small pea, I cut the 
same, and found the worm coiled up under the skin as it was 
in the breast when I first discovered it. I have not yet received 
the name of the worm from persons versed in such matters, but 
I know, gentlemen, that it is able to enter a fish that it may at- 
tack and make its exit from it in less than a minute. From 
later observations, I have seen the worm crawl out and then 
disappear in the body of the fish in about half a minute. The 
spot attacked in this case was also near the ventral fin. Gentle- 
men, that this worm, in connection with the bug, accounts for 
the scarcity of fish in our streams, I have not the slightest doubt, 
and hope that all of you engaged in fish culture will look out 
for such things. 
A discussion here followed as to the particular kind of “ bug” 
mentioned by Mr. McGovern. 
It was finally decided by Prof. A. S. Fuller to be the Bedos- 
toma grandis, and later in the day Prof. Fuller sent in a specimen 
which was recognized by Mr. McGovern as the one to which he 
referred. 
Mr. McGovern here showed a trout which had been attacked 
by a parasitic worm which had eaten into its side. He stated 
that he had seen many such worms, and once found one which 
had bored its way through a trout from side to side. 
Mr. Maruer: The larve of the dragon-flies (Zibel/ulide), are 
the most destructive to young fish in ponds of anything which 
I have met. I once placed five young gold-fish of half an inch 
in length in a bowl with a dragon-fly larva, and it devoured the 
five fish in about half an hour. 
