me. 
od 257 
bi WHITE WORMS AS PLANT PESTS. 
¥ REv. HILDERIC FRIEND. 
In Johnston’s Catalogue of British Worms, published in 1865 by ~ 
order of the Trustees of the British Museum, the white worms or 
Enchytrzeide are represented by one species only, which was named 
Enchytreus vermicularis. One sentence, however, relating to the 
habitat is significant. We are told that it is found ‘in the soil unde 
the bark of rotted trees, in decaying leaves, and at the roots of 
decayed vegetables.’ What surprises us is the fact that after all that 
has been done to extend our knowledge of these annelids, scarcely 
a note has been written in relation to the economical side of the 
general refuse eaters? While Henle and Grube, Vejdovsky and 
Michaelsen, with a host of other investigators, have been busy 
identifying and classifying new species, no Darwin has arisen among 
them to deal with this all-important question. 
This cannot be owing to lack of material, nor can we attribute 
the fact to ignorance of the characters of the white worms, seeing 
they are easily distinguished from grubs, larve, eel-worms, Zy/enchi, 
and other parasitic and injurious creatures. We may go further and 
say that it is not owing to the fact that white worms are rarely found 
associated with decaying vegetables, because the exact opposite is 
the case. Do we wish to find specimens, we always turn to the 
decaying vegetable matter in the wood, the farmyard, and the 
garden refuse heap, or pull up plants which are sickly looking, and 
€xamine the roots of grasses which show signs of collapse. 
Among the very few notices which have appeared throwing light 
on this exceedingly practical and important subject, one of the 
earliest consisted in a communication to the pages of ature 
some eight years ago. Mr. Allen Harker wrote from the Royal 
Agricultural College, Cirencester (Vature, vol. xl, p. 11, May 2nd, 
1889) with reference to A New Pest of Farm Crops, and drew 
attention to the fact that some form of white worm, related to, if not 
identical with Enchytraus buchholzii Vejd., was found at the roots of 
Clover at Rothampstead, and in association with decayed flowers at 
Little Dean, in such a way as to suggest that they were the cause of 
decay, Mr. Harker, who does not seem to have seen the hint 
Sept. 1897. - : 
