Rearing and radiographing the shipworm Lyrodus pedicellatus

Studies on the effects of a warm sea-water effluent under laboratory conditions required a technique for rearing batches of shipworm larvae from settling stage to maturity, and a way of radiographing adults that would picture them fully extenbed within their tunnels. Ways of infesting small pieces of spruce with the newly-released larvae of Lyrodus pedicellatus Quatrefages, and of radiographing them (enelosed in plastic bags full of artificial sea water) are described in detail, and the fate of a single generation is followed when infested pieces were kept in artificial sea water at two different temperatures. Using these techniques, it was found that the etenidia do not rotate during tunnelling, and that L. pedicellatus depends upon the wood-softening activities of micro-organisms to be able to stay within the wood.