166 Agricultural Gazette. 



Before settling the specific relations of our worm, it will be necessary to 

 review the literature of the subject. There can be no doubt that the worms 

 heretofore described under the generic name Jleterodera belong to the same 

 generic group as that which we are considering. The resemblances to S. 

 Schach/ii (Schmidt) are too great to be overlooked for a moment. Our 

 species, however, is not Schachtii. On comparison of the larva; and males of 

 the two forms, it is at once evident that Schachtii is a wider worm, with a 

 spear of different proportions, and with a longer oesojjhagus. Differences 

 also exist in the formation of the mouth. The relations with ][. radicicola, 

 Greef and II. Jnvanica I cannot discuss, either on account of the incom- 

 pleteness of the descriptions or the inaccessibility of the literature. 



A work by Dr. J. C. Neal, on what is called the lloot-knot Disease, has been 

 recently issued by the Agricultural Department at Washington, TJ.S.A. The 

 author describes a disease due to the attacks of a worm which he has pro- 

 A'isionally named Ani/uillula arenaria. I have carefully examined the figures 

 accompanying Dr. Ncal's report and am convinced that the worm I have 

 examined is identical with that which he has figiu-ed. His figures are such 

 that the examination has not been easy. What I take to be the male of 

 Dr. Ncal's species, though he has called it a female (Plate XII, 6, Neal 1. c. 



1 -v-tT -1 \ • Jl i! 1 S'2 8'? 13-0 M ? , 15 ? 23- M ( 



and XV, 1) gives the tormulse -^i — ji; ^.i — n — jr and -j:^ ts^m — T- 



His larvas give -r, — j — Ju — m— r- The great width of these figures I can 

 attribute to pressure from the cover-slip. Otherwise there is a fair amount 

 of correspondence between his figures and my own. It is, however, best to 

 mention the following points. A. arenaria, Neal, is said to be indigenous in 

 the United States. Its uteri often contain living and hatched embryos. 

 The eggs arc said to escape by rupture at the anterior end. I think this is 

 a mistake, and that Dr. Neal has shown the vulva in Plate XIX near the 

 lower margin of his figure, and again more plainly in Plato XXI. Dr. Neal 

 does not figure a bulb in all cases, but it may easily have been overlooked. 

 As I have already stated, much of the work in the investigation of free-living 

 Nematodes lies on the very verge of what can be accomplished with the best 

 modern microscope. In no part of the paper is the s])ear mentioned as such, 

 but I cannot help regarding the words " fissure having a circular hinge-like 

 termination," as the author's interpretation of the Tylenchoid spear. Still 

 I call attention to the fact that if I am right in this. Dr. Ncal's figures 

 represent the spear as much larger than I have found it to be. The eggs are 

 figured in the American pamphlet as straight, I have observed that they 

 are usually slightly curved. In spite, however, of these minor differences, 

 which are, for the most part, I think, to bo attributed to the American 

 investigator's acknowledged unf amiliarity with Nematode anatomy, I can have 

 no doubt that the Australian worm is the same that Dr. Neal has described 

 as occurring in a belt of land one hundred and fifty miles wide extending 

 from Texas through the Gulf and South Atlantic States, a distance of, say, 

 two thousand miles. Tliis being the case, I shall for the present call the 

 Australian worm, Tylcnchis arcnarius, Neal, with the remark that for aught 

 I can say to the coutrary, it may bo T. (Ilclcrodcrd) radicicola, Greef, or 

 T. (Iletcroderd) Javanicus. 



Dr. Bancroft, of Brisbane, has sent me an interesting pamphlet in which 

 he describes and figures a root-infesting Nematode found by him on grape 

 and banana roots. Dr. Bancroft's well-known familiarity with Nematode 

 anatomy has enabled him to distinguish both sexes. His figures seem to 

 represent T. arenarixis. 



