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1880

Wormoscope

Jun 17th 1880 11.45 a.m put 1 gigantic & 1 small worm in — can travel quickly backwards — doubled on themselves in space — Left them for 20' & both buried — The big one kept anus point level of Earth & retracted it when touched.

The potting-earth would consist of sand mixed with loam or decayed turf — decayed leaves & a little peat.

(When I give them leaves put glass beads black cut with facets& crumb them on surface for chance of being swallowed, as partly do stones)

19th come during night to surface no castings

Jun 21 noon. Large worm in large pot with pressed down fine damp ferruginous sand. — added a 2d worm

10˚ P.m — Many have yet difficulty in penetrating the sand & only slightly after some hours on margin of pot. I saw one ejecting excrement — This done by spurts, & care taken this done all round, so that makes a sort of coating all round — The smaller worm has buried itself

[The "wormoscope" was called the "wormograph" in a letter from Francis Darwin to Darwin [28 October 1877?]. This is a reference to what is now so famous to visitors to Down House, the wormstone."

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1880

Jun 22d 10˚a.m the big worm now ejecting yellow sand, showing that burrowing by eating sand.

12˚ big worm has not yet buried itself.-

1˚ still 1.6 inch of worm in arch above surface.

1.40' quite disappeared

23d 8˚a.m — largish lump of pure sand casting same spot.

25th 12˚ sq. piece of Burdock & 6 black beads laid in sand.

28th at 10˚P.m drawn into hole — next morning apparently much gnawed & torn — beads not swallowed.-

29th 7˚45' a.m added square of 1/2 dried Burdock, 2 do leaves of Heartease & flower peduncle.

July 15th at 10˚P.m saw large worm pulling withered leaf of cabbage — the attenuated apex when applied closely to surface suddenly became broad, I presume by retraction of apex. Once when it suddenly let go, I distinctly saw that the apex there consisted of deep cut [sketch]

It is odd how worm knew night & day & they do as they come out only at night & yet pots keep all day before N.E window covered by plates of glass & then by sheet of black paper. Light of candle does not disturb them in the least.

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Worms First Pot (sand). 1880

July 16th saw worms in both pots at night (moves in day) drawing leaves of cabbage & raspberry towards holes — Ant. extremity in contact seem always truncated, & when they let hold & could not drag the object further, I saw that bits of the leaf had been drawn into hollow cone at extremity. As they become attached to a leaf, the anterior part swelled, probably due to pharynx advancing.

A very slight cap to pot is transmitted through the earth & causes them to withdraw. When glass plate lifted very gently off pot, in 3 or 4 seconds they generally withdraw instantly & this must have been due to the sensation of dryer air, or odour in the room.

July 17th. It is, I think a mistake about many lifting off the glass, but they are certainly very sensitive to a slight puff

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of air from one's mouth, even through very narrow crack between glass-plate & rim of Pot. — I doubt whether odour of human breath, because gentle breathing does not affect them. They retire like flash of lighting —they seem to move whether ante end of body as a feeler. (I saw them feeding a cabbage leaf, & the end of body was not then applied transversely truncated, but the extreme tip seemed folded over on lower side, as Morren describes. They have gnawed away large spaces between lateral ribs of cabbage — leaf, which they seem much to like. When one was dragging cabbage leaf to its burrow attached to under side, I saw leaf rendered conical or pitted, by suction of ant. end of body attached to the lower side. End of cabbage leaf dragged partly into hole not blackened.

July 20th Pieces of cabbage-leaf dragged in hole 3 1/4 inches folded, not blackened, very humid does not affect Litmus or Turmeric — gnawed — ribs left, surface in parts

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removed, except epidermis — fragments torn quite off. —ash-leaf blackened & ivy leaf both gnawed — but I think cabbage most popular. I saw worm draw to hole ash leaflet did this by letting apex into mouth by aid of upper tip.

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July 30 tried again when they into metal when the into great power — no trace of effect — went on tugging at raw me[illeg]