Sept. 1, 18G5.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



197 



in the other instance (of Scigartia and Bernharchis), 

 the Anemone seems only to recognize the Crab, and 

 not the Crab to be conscious of the Anemone ; for 

 even when Bernhardus has been burdened with three 

 S. parasitica on its shell at one time, I have never 

 seen it seem more anxious to change its shell than 

 when it has only a sliell alone to carry. In further 

 proof of this recognition being natural in the one 

 case, and one-sided in the other, I have to state that 

 thougli I have liad brought me many thousands of the 

 common Hermit Crab (P. Bernhardus) without any 

 Anemone {S. parasitica), I have never got a single 

 specimen of the less common Hermit (P. Prideait.vil) 

 without its special Anemone {Adansia palliata) . I 

 also have to observe that the manner in which P. 

 Prideanxii assists the transfer of Adamsia from one 

 shell to another, reminds one exactly of the manner 

 in which a person would remove and then re-fix a 

 sticldug-plaister to his or her chest, first loosening 

 and picking it away at the edges, and then gradually 

 peeling it off entirely, and afterwards broadly apply- 

 ing a new plaister with both hands, smoothing and 

 working it down in places, and taking particular 

 care in making it adhere firmly all round the margins. 

 The action is all the more suggestive because the 

 relative positions of a man's hands, arms, and chest 

 correspond with much precision to the relative posi- 

 tions of the two first (right and left) legs of the 

 crab, and to the part of his shell to which he desires 

 to afiix the Anemone. 



Has any one ever seen a very small specimen of 

 Sagartia parasitica, or of Tealia crassicoruis ; — as 

 small, I mean, as the young ones of any other common 

 Sea- Anemone ? I never have ; and the least of those 

 two species which I recollect to have observed, was 

 as large when close, as a small cherry. 



W. xiLFOuD Lloyd. 



Zoological Gardens, Harahurg. 



MORE NOTES ON THE HAIRWORM. 



WEARY and dusty, after several hours' work 

 among tJie flint and chalk on the new line 

 of railway between Walden and Wenden, I began 

 my way home. To escape censure for looking like 

 a bricklayer's labourer, and not wishing to offend 

 the public taste, I threw my bag of fossils on the 

 bank of the classic Cam, which, at midsummer, is 

 here a mere stream, and sought by water to cleanse 

 me from offence. Amid my cooling ablutions, two 

 hairworms attracted my attention, which I imme- 

 diately captured, placed in a piece of paper, and 

 carried home in my waistcoat pocket, to examine at 

 my leisure. 



This worm was the subject of a brief but inter- 

 esting paper at page 107. It belongs to the Nematoid 

 order of Entozoa, and bears the name of Gordiws 

 (iqtiaticus. Would not the kuigly spirit who once 



ruled in the flesh over the Phrygians feel himself 

 humbled that his name should be mortalized in such 

 a worm ? That is, if spirits wander and wonder at 

 all. This worm, no doubt, got its name from the 

 extraordinary manner in which it knots itself, and 

 is thus supposed to resemble the leather harness of 

 Gordius, which was so intricate that there was no 

 finding out where it began or ended. 



One of my humble acquaintances measured no 

 less than S^^ inches in length. It has no jointed 

 skeleton internally, but a jointed covering, as in 

 insects. It is said that these creatures live a 

 parasitic life in the body of some unfortunate insect, 

 of an astonishing small size when compared with 

 the great length of the worm. When matui'c they 

 quit the body of the insect at whose expense they 

 have lived, for some moist place or watery spot, to 

 deposit their ova, which is accomplished in long 

 chains. It has been stated of this species, that, on 

 quitting its parasitical home for a terrestrial habita- 

 tion, should it find dry weather — a state of things 

 by no means congenial to its nature — it will shrink 

 up into a perfectly hard and dry substance, and wait 

 for a more favourable season. These worms draw 

 their nourishment for the support of their bodies 

 through the skin by absorption. I removed one of 

 my specimens from its aquarium, which I had 

 extemporized in a tumbler, and subjected it to a 

 scorching mid-day sun. It soon adapted itself to 

 altered circumstances, and what was a few minutes 

 before a round-bodied, graceful worm, grew flat, 

 rough, and contracted ; slowly knotting itself till at 

 last it became small and motionless, and blown 

 about by the faintest breath of air. Satisfied that 

 it had undergone sufiicieut scorching, if possible to 

 deprive it of life, and of ever again sporting its 

 hair-like body in my glass, I returned it thither 

 again after about three hours' exposure to the sun's 

 rays. You will not wonder that I watched it with 

 an earnestness that would have done honour to a 

 more weighty matter, as it absorbed moisture and 

 gave off little air-bubbles from almost every joint. 

 It gradually assumed its former shape, gave signs of 

 life, and, to my no small joy, soon sported its long 

 body with becoming jollity at being restored— if 

 not to life, at least to the element most compatible 

 with its notion of comfort. The figures represent 

 the head (a) and tail [b) of female magnified. 



Some weeks after the above event I revisited the 

 spot, and found the little water that remained appa- 

 rently alive with these small creatures. The watcr- 



m- 



