The Rev. M. J. Berkeley, to whom I sent some of the bees, procured, by scraping the interior of the abdomen with a lancet, very minute, curved linear bodies from 1/8000 to 1/10000 in. long, which he compares to Vibrios. He also found mixed with them globular bodies, but no visible stratum of mould.
From the peculiar position of the supposed spores within the abdomen of the bees, and from the subsequent growth of a fungus unlike any of our common forms of Mucedines, I think it probable that the death of the bees was occasioned by the presence of a parasitic fungus.
Notice of the occurrence of recent Worm Tracks in the Upper Part of the London Clay Formation near Highgate. By John W. Wetherell. Communicated by James Yates, Esq., M.A., F.L.S.
[Read June 3rd, 1858.]
The London clay is very tenacious, and near the surface is generally of a brown colour, probably owing to the decomposition of the iron pyrites which it contains. It abounds in selenite or sulphate of lime, and in nodules which often contain organic remains. Fossil wood with Teredo antenautæ is also met with, and pyritous casts of univalve and bivalve shells. Lower down the stratum becomes more compact and is of a bluish or blackish colour, and its fossil contents are in a fine state of preservation. During the last summer, while examining the London Clay in the vicinity of Highgate in search of fossils, my attention was directed to certain appearances in it which I could not account for. This led to a further examination, when I found they were produced by the borings of Lumbrici or earth-worms. These appearances consisted of long tubes passing nearly perpendicularly through the clay and terminating in receptacles or nidi, each tube leading to a separate receptacle. As these receptacles occurred in large numbers, I had an opportunity of examining a great many of them with various results. In one instance, I found a dead worm coiled up; in another, a portion of a worm protruding into the lower part of the tube. Again, nidi were found partially filled with only the casts of worms, whilst others contained more or less of a species of Conferva; and, lastly, I obtained some with the cavities partially or wholly filled up. The receptacles varied in shape, from a sphere to an oval, and were extremely thin and fragile. They also varied in size from a pea to a nut. Externally they presented an appearance so singularly contorted, that I could not help considering they were moulded from the casts of worms. They did not appear to have any attachment to the surrounding clay, except at the point of junction with the tube; and the clay beneath them presented no unusual appearance.
Internally they generally exhibited impressions of the worm; but occasionally I detected some of the round and contorted appearances which I have mentioned as being so conspicuous on the outside. I cannot speak with precision as to the length of the tubes, as the clay when examined had been broken up into large rough masses in digging for the foundations of houses. The largest noticed was about three inches long, and the general width one-eighth of an inch. They often run parallel to each other, but at unequal distances. I now have to notice what I consider a remarkable circumstance, namely, that all the tubes contained a solid cylinder of clay, and in every instance where the worms occurred under the circumstances above recorded, they were found to be dead. Researches of this kind are calculated to throw a light on some of those singular phenomena which geologists occasionally meet with in the older rocks.
[Mem.—Several specimens of clay, containing the worm-tubes as above described, were exhibited to the meeting.]
Natural History—Extracts from the Journal of Captain Denham, H.M. Surveying Vessel 'Herald,' 1857. Communicated by Captain Washington, through the Secretary.