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Darwin Correspondence Project

From H. N. Moseley   7 October 1881

University of London, | Burlington Gardens. W.

Oct 7. 81.

My dear Mr Darwin

A thousand thanks for your new book.1 It is very kind of you to have sent me a copy. I have only been able to get twenty minutes at it as yet but am delighted. The big Ceylon worm is an old friend of mine. I got it hunted for me by a coolie trained by Dr. Thwaites.2 He only got me two after a whole days labour for the ground was dry at the time. He brought back one egg with each specimen and told me the worm always keeps its single egg at the bottom of its burrow and guards it till hatched. The egg is as far as I remember as large as this diagram flask shaped   the capsule being transparent and chitinous. and the young worm in the only broken one of the two was fully formed coiled inside. Both the old one and egg are at Oxford in the museum   I mean to have described them long ago but did not somehow.3

A similar huge worm is common in New South Wales. And I got a specimen through one of the residents, which is amongst the Challenger collection.4 He sent for it from some swampy land of his up country and told me it made mounds as big as mole hills. Its head is as large as this diagram but it was broken and I could not tell how long but at least a yard I think. I rather think it is described as Megascolex. It is Peritrichous.5 I dare say you know all about both.

Again thanking you for the pleasure you have given me. | yours truly H N Moseley.

Footnotes

Moseley’s name is on CD’s presentation list for Earthworms (see Appendix IV).
George Henry Kendrick Thwaites. See Earthworms, p. 128.
The earthworm was probably Megascolex caeruleus, first described by Robert Templeton as measuring between 20 and 40 inches long (Templeton 1844, p. 89). The illustration is reproduced at 1:1 scale.
Two very large species of earthworm occur in New South Wales, Australia: Notoscolex grandis and Digaster lumbricoides, both in the family Megascolecidae. No record of earthworms collected by Moseley on the HMS Challenger expedition has been identified.
The genera Megascolex and Notoscolex are characterised by a row of small spines or setae surrounding each body segment. The illustration is reproduced at 1:1 scale.

Bibliography

Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.

Templeton, Robert. 1844. [Extracts from a letter from Robert Templeton.] [Read 28 May 1844.] Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 12: 89–91.

Summary

Thanks for presentation copy of Earthworms.

Describes a worm from Ceylon.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13375
From
Henry Nottidge Moseley
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
University of London, Burlington Gardens
Source of text
DAR 171: 260
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13375,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13375.xml

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