Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/153

Rh a special liking for ooze, vegetable and animal remains in a state of decay, the fœtid banks of streams in manufacturing districts, and similar spots. I should be glad if correspondents would supply me with gleanings from such like situations for further record.

During a recent flying visit to Yorkshire I took occasion to visit a spot on the banks of the Aire at Apperley where I have often in former years found valuable material. The time of year was not favourable, as the worms had gone into winter quarters. I was fortunate, however, in finding along with a number of Tubificids one or two white worms, one of which is new to Great Britain. I have therefore to place on record Fridericia striata (Levinsen). The spot where the worm was found is connected with a mill, and more than one curious find has been made in the same locality in days gone by. This remark is made lest it should be supposed that a worm hitherto known only in Denmark and Germany would be unlikely to appear in Great Britain. Ude has indeed given it, since Mr. Beddard's monograph was published, as a native of Monte Video, whence it was brought by Dr. Michaelsen; so that there is no reason why it should not be found with us. It has from six to eight setæ in a bundle, but the peculiarity which struck me as most characteristic was the gizzard-like enlargement of the intestine in segment ix. My specimen has forty-five segments, the first five or six of which are striated, or marked by some irregular bands or vacuoles, usually three in each segment.

Since I reported the destructive Enchytræus parvulus, Friend, as an aster pest last year, I have found it by the score along with another species of Enchytræus and the pretty Julus pulchellus in my own garden, where between them they have almost entirely destroyed a row of celery originally containing about one hundred sticks. It is evident that there is still room for a good deal of research among our micro-annelid fauna.