Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 224, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1914 — Worm Breaks Itself to Pieces. [ARTICLE]

Worm Breaks Itself to Pieces.

There is a flat worm about half a* inch long called Planaria velata which | reproduces itself in a most extnu>rtl*;| nary manner. According to an art|p§|| In the Biological Bulletin when it grows old it loses its appetite, colors fade and its movements become slow. It drops a tiny fragment of its tail, then another, still another and on until it has left about half of body in scattered pieces. Each de- . tached piece curls up, secretes a mu- ; cus that acton dries and forms a hard shell. In this condition the fragments remain throughout the summer, fall and winter. In the spring the shells bwrgfclf and liberate many minute wona*»J which eat voraciously and soon grow to adult size. The fore part of the worm, after it has shed all these bits, either dies or encyste itself in its tximM