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A NEW BRITISH WORM. 



By the Rev. Hilderic Friend. 



My attention was drawn during the last week in July to the 

 fact that in the neighbourhood of Birmingham the China Aster 

 was perishing from some form of blight. On pulling a sickly 

 plant from a flower-bed at King's Hill, Wednesbury, Staffordshire, 

 and examining the roots with a pocket lens, I detected a minute 

 worm. This evidently was the cause of the mischief. On 

 submitting specimens of the annelid to microscopic examination 

 I found it to be an Enchytraeid ; and so far as I am aware it is 

 new to science, unless it has been examined by some of the 

 florists and described in journals which I am unable to examine. 

 I should recommend all periodicals which deal with the flower- 

 garden to copy this description. 



The Aster Worm. 



Enchytraeus parvulus, Friend. This destructive pest is 3-4 mm. 

 or about one-eighth of an inch in length, and when seen at work is of a 

 silvery white colour. It has no coloured blood, and may be called a white 

 worm — no uncommon thing in this group of annelids. It lodges under the 

 epidermis of the root and feeds on the juices and tender vegetable sub- 

 stances, thus absorbing the plant nutriment and preventing the roots from 

 performing their natural functions. It is gregarious, for quite a colony will 

 sometimes be found in one plant. The average number of segments is 

 thirty, and on segment XII. a girdle is developed, somewhat papillose, with 

 a pair of pores associated with pear-shaped bodies. The ventral setae are 

 absent from this segment, their places being occupied by the pores. In 

 the hinder extremity there are four sets of setae in each segment, each set 

 containing three setae. The anterior differs from the posterior, inasmuch 

 as the lateral setae are in couples and not triplets. Thus in segments 

 IT. — XL we have two setae in each lateral bundle, and three in each 

 ventral bundle. On segment XII. we find two lateral pairs only, then 

 for a few segments more there are two in the lateral and three in the 

 ventral bundles, while the last ten or dozen segments have four triplets 

 each. 



