301 
ON HYBRIDITY AMONG WORMS. 
Rev. HILDERIC FRIEND, F.LS., 
Idle, Bradford; Author of ‘Flowers and Flower Lore, etc. 
THIs is a subject upon which, as far as I can recollect, I have never 
seen a single remark in print. The explanation is simple. No one 
in England has been sufficiently familiar with the different species of 
earthworms in the past to enable him to detect a case of Annelid 
courtship which would result in the production of a hybrid. When 
two individuals have been observed in the act of love-making, it has 
species, and there the matter has ended. On one occasion a 
student of earthworms suggested to me that a specimen which he 
had dissected appeared abnormal, and might possibly be a hybrid ; 
but he gave no case which he had observed, or of which he had 
heard, which would lead him to such a conclusion. Yet it must be 
admitted, when we come to look carefully into the matter, that 
unless worms are possessed of some peculiar instinct by means of 
which they can infallibly distinguish members of their own particular 
species from all others, there is a tremendous risk of their forming 
unnatural alliances, and paying their addresses to strangers. 
et us remember, for example, that worms are destitute of eyes, 
and all such modifications of other organs as may be taken to 
supply the place of eyes in other low forms of life. Many 
experiments have been scientifically conducted with a view to 
ascertain to what extent earthworms are affected by, or capable of 
realising, the action of light. he results have not been wholly 
satisfactory, for the simple reason that the experiments have not 
been conducted with strict reference to specific differences; an 
jon 
were affected by light in a very marked degree this would not prove 
that they could detect their mates, as many higher animals do, by 
the aid of light and vision. It is true that two worms may frequently 
be seen embracing each other above ground, but this is simply 
because their burrows do not meet beneath the surface, and they are 
therefore compelled in many instances to search for their mates on 
the surface of the soil, while their posterior extremities still cling 
tenaciously to the sides of their burrows. But I have many times 
ad occasion to note that light is altogether unnecessary for the 
operation. Last year when I was on a short visit to the Dukeries in 
Nottinghamshire, a friend took me to a heap of decaying matter to 
dig for brandlings, ‘and in the very middle of the heap we unearthed 
ct. 1892. 
