dear sir,

i beg leave to offer you my best thanks for your kind replies to my letter, and especially for the mention of balfour’s work, with which i was not previously acquainted.¹ i think i have sufficient material for the mere glance at the subject which will be possible within the limits of a lecture.²

in your book on worms, you quote hoffmeister as saying that ‘scolopenders’ are their bitterest enemies.³ i do not know what hoffmeister means by ‘scolopender’, the real meaning of the word being somewhat vague and generic; but some years ago i was standing, in the middle of a hot summer day, on a piece of grass at the back of my house in nottingham, and i saw a large earthworm come out of its burrow near my feet, and make off with all speed. the sight was sufficiently unusual to attract my attention, and the worm was speedily followed by a black articulate insect, about two inches long, with many legs, a sort of small centipede.⁴ this overtook the worm, and seized it near its tail, holding on with such tenacity that the most energetic writhings of the worm failed to detach it. at this stage of the proceedings i intervened with some chloroform, and killed the assailant. i found that it was furnished with two sharp spines, jointed to the two sides of its head, and that it had struck these completely through the worm, from side to side.⁵ i gave the insect to the natural history society of nottingham, and it is probably in a bottle in their collection to this day.⁶ i do not think i had ever seen one like it before, so it cannot be very common. i do not know whether this will possess the slightest interest for you, but it seemed worth while to write it down.

with renewed thanks, i am, dear sir, | very faithfully yours, | R Brudenell Carter

charles darwin esq. f.r.s.