ON THE NEMATODES PARASITIC 
IN THE EARTHWORM 
BY 
ARTHUR E. SHIPLEY, M. A, F.Z.S. 
Fellow and Tutor of Christ’s College, Cambridge 
and Lecturer on the Advanced Morphology of the Invertebrata, in the University. 
In the following resumé I have put together the chief facts relating 
to the Nematodes which live in various parts of the body of the 
Earthworm, the nature of which the Demonstrator is so frequently 
asked to explain to the beginner in Zoological study. The result of 
the compilation is undoubtedly rather disappointing, we should at 
any rate like to know more about the Ascaris sp. of Leuckart with 
its rate capacity for parasitizing and of the Dicelis filaria which 
Dujardin has « trouvé fréquemment à Paris, en 1838 et 1839, dans 
les testicules des Lombrics de mon jardin » and which he aïter- 
wards so vainly sought at Rennes. 
I am much indebted to Doctor von Linstow for bibliographical 
help and above all for the loan of one of the memoirs here quoted 
which was not to be found in the Libraries of London or Cambridge. 
1. — PELODERA PELLIO Anton Schneider. 
This Nematode was described as a new species by Anton Schneider 
in his Monograph (1) published in 1866. He describes the adults as 
living in damp earth and rotting substances and points out that they 
differ but little from P. papillosa À. Schn. found in the same sur- 
roundings. The female is 3"m in length. The larvae live encysted 
in the body-cavity of Earthworms and are especially numerous on 
or in the septa. The larvae have been described under the name 
Rhabditis pellio Schneider and more fully by Bütschli (2) from 
certain decaying Earthworms. 
(4) Monographie der Nematoden. Berlin, 1866, p. 154. 
(2) Acta Ac. German., XXXVI, 1873, n° 5, p. 112. 
