THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
47 
interest your readers to know a melbod 
pursued by me for preserving pupa; from 
mould, with perfect success. The idea 
occurred to me some years ago that a 
healthy living plant growing amongst 
them would be all that would be required 
to keep the pupae alive, thus preventing 
the formation of mould by absorbing as 
decomposed the animal and vegetable 
matter. Acting upon this I procured a 
small wooden box, bored with large holes 
in the bottom, in which 1 placed stones, 
gravel, pupae and loam, the whole plenti- 
fully moistened ; lastly, I sowed mustard 
and cress amongst the pupae ; the seed 
was not long in showing itself above the 
surface. Out of fifty pupae thus treated, 
different species of Sphingidte and Noc- 
tuBB, forty-nine came out perfect, and all 
the pupa-cases were free from mould. 
The plant, commonly termed mould, 
which infests pupae has a strong affinity 
for the free matter, but a living Phaeno- 
gamons plant has a still stronger affinity 
for the decomposed organisms, therefore 
it follows as a natural result that the one 
usurps the place of the other. 
Yours truly, 
C. 0. Gkoom. 
13, Hova Villas, Cliflonville, 
Brighton ; Sept. 27. 
PARASITIC WORMS. 
To the Editor of the ‘ InteUii/ejicer.' 
Sir, — On the 6th inst. I took a larva 
of I know not what, feeding on the ash, 
which, on examining the day after, I 
found at the bottom of my box, as if 
dead, with a living thread-like substance 
projecting from the tail, which on re- 
moving measured 8f inches long, with 
perfect shaped head and tapered tail, and 
continued to move, tying itself in knots, 
for an hour. I have since removed two 
more, and the larva appears to be more 
lively. I shall feel obliged if you will 
inform me if the same is known as of 
common occurrence. I have preserved 
them, and when dry they appear perfectly 
transparent, resembling the “gut” used 
for fishing. 
Yours, &c., 
A. Russei.i.. 
Ashford ; Oct. 8. 
To the Editor of the ' Intelligencer.' 
Sir, — I had flattered myself that ich- 
neumons were the only formidable ene- 
mies of the larva-breeding entomologist ; 
but I was disagreeably surprised the 
other day by the appearance of four of 
the worms I enclose from a larva of 
A. Betularia, which they had of course 
quite destroyed. They are not unlike 
the worms found occasionally in water, 
which are said to destroy cattle that 
drink it. Since these appeared I have 
found another small leaf-rolling cater- 
pillar (about three-quarters of an inch in 
length, common on oak and bramble), in 
which I could see one of these things 
coiled up through its transparent skin. 
In a day or two the worm came out, 
leaving nothing but the skin of the un- 
happy larva behind. I dare say they 
are not uncommon, but never having 
seen any notice of them in any work on 
Entomology I have taken the liberty of 
sending you a couple of them for in- 
spection. 
Yours truly, 
Alan M. Alington. 
Llwyngwern, Machynlleth. 
[In reply to the above enquiries, we 
extract the following from Dallas’ ‘ Na- 
tural History of the Animal Kingdom,’ 
p. 92 
“ The Gordiacea, or Hair-worms, are 
at once distinguishable by the extra- 
ordinary length of their bodies, which 
frequently present a close resemblance to 
a horse hair. These animals live as 
parasites in the bodies of various species 
of insects, to which their size is often so 
