306 THE ZOOLOGIST, 



the ordinary ventral setae ; instead of a bundle of about four setse 

 there is sometimes only a single seta. This worm appears to be 

 luminous at night, whence the name given to it by Duges." — 

 Beddard, * Monograph of Oligochaeta (1895),' p. 472. It is now 

 known as Pontodrilus phosphoreus (Duges). 



In 1843, when the British Association met at Cork, specimens 

 of an annelid were exhibited by Dr. Allman, which he had dis- 

 covered in the bogs of the south of Ireland, and which was the 

 cause of a luminous appearance. When irritated the worm gave 

 out a phosphorescent light, which is said to have been much 

 increased by exposing the creature to the vapour of alcohol. The 

 light was of that peculiar soft greenish hue which is characteristic 

 of the phosphorescence usually observed in living animals, and 

 familiar to most readers in connection with the Glowworm. It 

 was said to be closely allied to the Earthworm. Another gentle- 

 man was reported to have observed the same pecularity in some 

 annelids which exist in the bogs of Connaught. I have been 

 unable to find any recent reference to or confirmation of these 

 curious observations, and this though I have examined many 

 hundreds of specimens of terrestrial and aquatic worms from 

 difierent parts of Ireland, have made special enquiries, and even 

 visited Ireland myself in 1896 purposely to examine the annelid 

 fauna for the Koyal Irish Academy. Ten years later Mr. Henry 

 Cox exhibited an Earthworm which was phosphorescent at a 

 meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, 

 held November 14th, 1853.* 



While few records of a reliable nature respecting the obser- 

 vation of luminous worms in Britain are available, a good deal 

 has been done by our continental fellow-workers. Vejdovsky, 

 who wrote a very valuable work on the various species of annelids 

 in 1884, entitled * System und Morphologie der Oligochseten,' 

 gives us some results of his personal experience, which I believe 

 have never been placed before the English reader. He says that 

 he had the good fortune once to observe an interesting case of 



* See ' Proceedings,' No. viii., p. 57. In 1893 I received news of a 

 phosphorescent Worm having been found in London, but it proved on 

 examination to be not a Worm at all. In fact, many of the instances of 

 so-called phosphorescence in worms may be traced to the popular habit of 

 calling centipedes and all other lowly wriggling creatures by this compre- 

 hensive name. 



