I accept that there are "snow worms" upon this earth--whatever their
origin may have been. In the _Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. of Philadelphia_,
1899-125, there is a description of yellow worms and black worms that
have been found together on glaciers in Alaska. Almost positively were
there no other forms of insect-life upon these glaciers, and there was
no vegetation to support insect-life, except microscopic organisms.
Nevertheless the description of this probably polymorphic species fits a
description of larvae said to have fallen in Switzerland, and less
definitely fits another description. There is no opposition here, if our
data of falls are clear. Frogs of every-day ponds look like frogs said
to have fallen from the sky--except the whitish frogs of Birmingham.
However, all falls of larvae have not positively occurred in the last of
January:
London _Times_, April 14, 1837:
That, in the parish of Bramford Speke, Devonshire, a large number of
black worms, about three-quarters of an inch in length, had fallen in a
snowstorm.
In Timb's _Year Book_, 1877-26, it is said that, in the winter of 1876,
at Christiania, Norway, worms were found crawling upon the ground. The
occurrence is considered a great mystery, because the worms could not
have come up from the ground, inasmuch as the ground was frozen at the
time, and because they were reported from other places, also, in Norway.
Immense number of black insects in a snowstorm, in 1827, at Pakroff,
Russia. (_Scientific American_, 30-193.)
Fall, with snow, at Orenburg, Russia, Dec. 14, 1830, of a multitude of
small, black insects, said to have been gnats, but also said to have had
flea-like motions. (_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 1-22-375.)
Large number of worms found in a snowstorm, upon the surface of snow
about four inches thick, near Sangerfield, N.Y., Nov. 18, 1850
(_Scientific American_, 6-96). The writer thinks that the worms had been
brought to the surface of the ground by rain, which had fallen
previously.
_Scientific American_, Feb. 21, 1891:
"A puzzling phenomenon has been noted frequently in some parts of the
Valley Bend District, Randolph County, Va., this winter. The crust of
the snow has been covered two or three times with worms resembling the
ordinary cut worms. Where they come from, unless they fall with the snow
is inexplicable." In the _Scientific American_, March 7, 1891, the
Editor says that similar worms had been seen upon the snow near Utica,
N.Y., and in Oneida and Herkimer Counties; that some of the worms had
been sent to the Department of Agriculture at Washington. Again two
species, or polymorphism. According to Prof. Riley, it was not
polymorphism, "but two distinct species"--which, because of our data, we
doubt. One kind was larger than the other: color-differences not
distinctly stated. One is called the larvae of the common soldier beetle
and the other "seems to be a variety of the bronze cut worm." No attempt
to explain the occurrence in snow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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