The occurrence of the chrysanthemum eelworm, Aphelenchoides ritzema-bosi (Schwartz, 1911), in an unusual situation, namely within the tissues of tomato fruits, calls for brief report since, though well known as a leaf parasite of a good number of plants, it has not, to our knowledge, been reported previously from a fruit.

Towards the end of October, one of us (S.H.B.) visited a grower who complained of having a number of tomato fruits from which the calyx tissue came away at the slightest touch. These fruits then rotted deeply towards the centre. Two such fruits were taken from the store for examination in the laboratory. One of them was attacked by the fungus Didymella Lycopersici whilst the other was found to contain eelworms. This fruit was sent by S.H.B. to T.G. with a request for a determination of the species of eelworm present and an opinion on whether it was a parasitic species or not.

On receipt of the fruit the senior author cut it in two by a cut passing along the longitudinal axis from the calyx region and through the central fleshy placenta. It was then seen that the discoloured diseased area was about ¼ in. deep by about ⅝ in. broad and occupied much of the solid fleshy base of the fruit. On teasing up a small portion of the diseased tissues in water and examining under the binocular microscope, considerable numbers of small eelworms were found together with numerous eggs and larvae in various stages of growth.