404 



JOURNAL OF ECOXO^IIC ENTOMOLOGY 



Bipalium keicense. — June 22. 1915. a florist of Lexington l^rought 

 me a fine specimen of this giant land planarian which he found in soil 

 about plants in his hothouse. When extended it measured over 

 seA'en inches in length, the body being flattened, unsegmented. slimy, 

 and about O.IS inch '4.5 mm. ' in greatest width. The head is a singu- 

 lar leaf-hke structure capable of being greatly distended and widened, 

 and as the animal moves is kept swaying about like a great lip. It is 

 not notched as represented in Dr. Gamples" Platyhelminthes. p. 34 

 (The Cambridge Xatural History Series !. 



The general color is brown, the dorsal side with a narrow l_dack 

 median line, with two broader less well-defined hues on each side of it. 

 the outer one of each side lying close along the margin of the body. 

 Beneath, the body is marked by two obscure longitudinal dusky lines, 

 one on each side of the middle line. 



Just where the worm comes from is problematical. It is said to 

 occur in the forests of Samoa, and may be native there. It has fre- 

 Cjuently been introduced into England and other European countries 

 with plants, and we may surmise that it has been brought thus into 

 the United States. This is the second instance of its occurrence at 

 Lexington, the first specimens, of which there were two. being brought 

 to me by a florist in 1905. 



"We have nothing like this flat worm so far as I know among our 

 native species. It is formidable in appearance, but may prove not to 

 be a pest. The common aciuatic species of this part of the United 

 States commonly measure less than a half inch in length. 



Heterodem scho.chtii. — In 1910. I receiA'ed from a former student of 

 Kentucky State L'niversity a sample of sugar beets from Spreckles. 

 California, badly infested with the European Eel worm, and which was 

 reported to be a very destructive pest to sugar beets grown on the 

 Spreckles sugar plantations. ^ly correspondent wrote of the infestation: 



^' At present the nematode patches are not large and Ave hope to get 

 them under control before they spread further. Infested areas are 

 clearly defined in the beet fields. The plants wilt down during the 

 heat of the day but revive during the night. On the infested roots 

 can easily be seen the swollen bodies of the females filled with eggs. 



It will be recalled that the Bureau of Entomology published some 

 years ago a bulletin on the Pvoot-knot worm ' Heterodera radicicola • of 

 the South Atlantic states, and of hothouses north. The western 

 species works veiy differently, but is, if anything, more destructive. I 

 have been expecting to hear from it in the eastern states. Has anyone 

 encountered it there? 



Lexixgtox, Kextucky, 

 - June 26, 1915. 



