Abstract
YOUR correspondent, Mr. Edwin Lawrence, is mistaken in supposing that the worms of England enjoy immunity from attacks such as he witnessed at Laqueville. I saw, in North Devonshire, in the last week of July, 1882, an incident precisely like that which he narrates. The insect I should judge from his description was identical. What particularly impressed me was its enormous strength, for the earth-worm, which was a large specimen of its kind, must have had at least twenty times the bulk of its adversary, and yet the insect, seizing upon the middle of the body, dragged it by main force a distance of three or four inches. It was cunning as well as strong; for when it found that the corpse, dragged loopwise from the middle, met with considerable resistance from the stiff wiry grass, it seized hold of the head, brought it round over the middle, and endeavoured to drag the worm lengthwise between the opposing stalks. I watched the attack for some time, and then removed the insect with my stick to a distance to see if it would find out the worm again, but in doing so I unfortunately injured it. When I first saw it the worm could still crawl, though feebly, but at the end of the attack it was quite motionless.
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RIX, H. An Insect Attacking a Worm. Nature 26, 574 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/026574b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/026574b0
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