Search

In the present study pathological alterrations in parasitic infections in deshi fowls were analysed. The endoparasites like Tetrameres mohtedai and Acuaria spiralis in proventriculus, Acuaria hamulosa in gizzard, Ascaridia galli in intestine, Heterakis gallinae in cecum and Raillietina., Amoebotaenia, Hymenolepis, Choanotaenia in intestine and Syngamus trachea in trachea revealed gross and microscopic lesions in the respective organs which has attributed to the weak health of the birds.

Choanotaenia atopa (Cestoda: Dilepididae) is described (host: domestic cat from the vicinity of Manhattan, Kansas); its natural host is presumed to be a rodent. Choanotaenia atopa is morphologically similar to cestodes of 6 species, all from rodents, formerly placed in the genus Rodentotaenia Matevosian, 1953, and subsequently removed to the genera Choanotaenia Railliet, 1986, or Monopylidium Fuhrmann, 1899. The systematic position of those cestodes is discussed; Monopylidium and Rodentotaenia are treated as synonyms of Choanotaenia. Choanotaenia atopa is distinguished by size and form of rostellar hooks, regularly alternating genital pores, and other characters in genital organs.

Four species of adult cestodes and one larval form were recovered from Rattus assimilis (Gould, 1858) from Queensland. Hymenolepis diminuta Rudolphi, 1819; and the cysticercus of Taenia taeniae-formis (Batsch, 1786) are new host records for Australia; the same infestations with Raillietina (Raillietina) celebensis (Janicki, 1902) have also been recorded by Baer and Sandars (1956). Two new species, viz:—Choanotaenia ratticola and Hymenolepis australiensis are described.The type specimens are lodged in the Queensland Museum, Brisbane. Cotype and other specimens studied are also lodged in the Queensland Museum and in the Institut de Zoologie, Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland; the Department of Parasitology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and in the British Museum (Natural History).

One hundred and ninety-seven English sparrows collected in the vicinity of Lafayette, Indiana, have been examined for cestode parasites. The species recovered and incidences of infection are as follows: Hymenolepis passeris (Gmelin), 2·5%; Choanotaenia passerina (Fuhrmann) provis, 3·5%; Anonchotaenia globata (von Linstow), 2·5%. Of these, Hymenolepis passeris is reported for the first time from North America. The name Haploparaxis linstowi is proposed for Aploparaksis fringillarum von Linstow nec Rudolphi. Additions are made to the present descriptions of the species observed.

1. A new species Choanotaenia larimarina sp.nov. from the greater black-backed gull (Larus marinus) is described.2. A comparison is made with other species of Choanotaenia which possess a reticulate uterus.3. Because the uterus breaks down in only one of these four species it is suggested that in this type of development the breakage may be due to mechanical stretching of the tubule in the gravid segment.4.If this be true then the portion of the uterine wall which envelops the egg is not a uterine capsule in the accepted sense.

L'auteur expose les resultats de l'etude experimentale du cycle biologique de deux especes de Choanotaenia parasites des Soricidae: Ch. crassiscolex (von Linstow, 1890) et Ch. estavarensis Euzet et Jourdane, 1968, parasites respectivement des Musaraignes du genre Sorex et de la Musaraigne aquatique Neomys fodiens. Les differents stades du developpement larvaire sont decrits. Une difference de l'ordre de 10 jours dans la duree de l'evolution des deux especes est mise en evidence pour une temperature d'experience de 22° centigrades.

1. Four stages in the development of Choanotaenia crassiscolex are described with the help of five text figures and one plate.2. The functional anatomy of the cysticercoid is given with the help of diagrams.3. The identification is based on comparisons with material at the British Museum of Natural History, South Kensington, London, and comparison is made with earlier records in Table 1.4. The unusual cyclophyllidean scolex is discussed and tentative suggestions and queries concerning the general form of the early cysticercoid are put forward.5. An attempt is made to determine more precisely than has hitherto been done for cysticercoids, the relationship of parasite and host.

Two long-billed curlews (Numenius americanus Bechstein) were collected near Elida, Roosevelt Co., New Mexico. Two species of endoparasites were recovered, the cestode Choanotaenia numenii Owen, 1946 and the acanthocephalan Mediorhynchus papillosus Van Cleave, 1916. Three mallophagan species, Cummingsiella longistricola (Wilson, 1937), Austromenopon crocatum (Nitzsch, 1866) and Lunaceps numenii numenii (Denny, 1844), were also recovered. All represent new distribution records while M. papillosus and L. numenii numenii also represent new host records.

This paper is concerned with two species of cestodes encountered in 85 owls, representing 10 species and sub-species, examined over the past 5 years. The birds examined were: great hiorned owl, Bubo v. virginianus (Grnelin); arctic horned owl, Bubo virginianus subarcticus Hov; barn owl, Tyto alba pratincola (Bonaparte); screech owl, Otus asio naevius (Gmelin); barred owl, Strix v. varia Barton; short-eared owl, Asio f. flammeus (Pontoppidan); longeared owl, Asio wilsonianus (Lesson); snowy owl, Nyctea nyctea (Linnaeus); saw-whet owl, Cryptoglaux a. acadicae (Gmelin); and burrowing owl, Speotyto cunicularia hypugaea (Bonaparte).

I found six species of cestodes, three of which belong to the genus Raillietina; one to the genus Amoebotaenia; one to the genus Choanotaenia; and one to the genus Hymenolepis. Although all of these species have been previously described, I have found some new and interesting morphological peculiarities which either differ from those previously described, or have been overlooked entirely. Therefore, a discussion of these forms is warranted.

Description: Body small; maximum length 73, maximum width 0.62. Scolex diameter 0.35 to 0.39. Extruded rostellum 0.079 in diameter. Hooks 22, double row, 80 microns long. Rostellar sac up to 0.31 long. Four suckers, diameter 0.19 to 0.21, unarmed. Mature and gravid proglottids longer than wide. Typical mature segment 0.9 long by 0.54; typical gravid segment 1.59 long by 0.57. Testes 31 to 34 per proglottid, diameter 0.047 to 0.056, postovarian, confined within lateral excretory canals. Cirrus-sac running forward from genital atrium, 0.18 to 0.19 long by 0.042. Diameter extruded cirrus 9 to 11 microns; unarmed. Bunch of setae at base of cirrus. Internal vesicula seminalis, thin and coiled. Genital atrium alternating irregularly, opening on lateral margin, in anterior third of proglottid. Vagina, 6 to 9 microns in diameter, opening into genital atrium posterior to cirrus. Receptaculum seminis large, pyriform, diameter 0.085 to 0.092. Ovary bilobed, aporal lobe being considerably the larger, lying between anterior and middle thirds of body. Looped duct 11 microns diameter connecting receptaculum seminis with oviduct; lying dorsal to other genitalia. Oviduct ventral, running posteriad to Mehlis' gland, which is spherical, 47 to 50 microns diameter, overlying anterior border vitellarium. Latter 0.097 to 0.106 diameter, irregular, median, ventral and postovarian. Gravid uterus breaking down to form egg capsules each containing one egg. Capsule diameter 0.054 to 0.068; onchosphere diameter 0.035 to 0.038. Host: Pitta angolensis Vieillot. Location: Intestine. Locality: Near Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. Types to be deposited in the British Museum (Natural History), London.

The genus Southwellia Moghe, 1925, was established as a monobasic genus to include a species of tapeworm described as Monopylidium gallinarum by Southwell in 1921, which was collected from a domestic fowl at Berhampore, Bengal, India. Moghe, and later Meggitt, recognized the necessity of separating this species from the balance of the genus Monopylidium because of the unilaterality of the genital pores. Each of these authors has given a diagnosis of the genus based on the facts stated in the original specific description of the parasite and hence both diagnoses fail to describe certain important portions of its anatomy. In all characters of generic rank mentioned the species described below as new agrees so perfectly with S. gallinarum (Southwell) that the writer feels justified in adding to the generic diagnosis. Six generic names have been proposed for the group of species to which the above mentioned form belongs. Of these, one (Parachoanotaenia Luehe, 1910) falls immediately into synonymy for it is antedated by Icterotaenia Railliet and Henry, 1909, both names being based upon the same type, to wit: Choanataenia galbulae (Zeder, 1803). The oldest of the five names remaining is Choanotaenia Railliet, 1896, with Choanotaenia infundibulum (Bloch, 1779) as its type. The salient characters of this genus are: (1) Irregularly alternating genital pores; (2) genital canals passing between the dorsal and ventral excretory canals, and (3) the presence of a persistent uterus which may be subdivided into numerous communicating chambers. The second of the names, in point of time, is Monopylidium Fuhrmann, 1899, type species Monopylidium musculosum (Fuhrmann, 1896). This genus agrees with Choanotaenia Railliet in having irregularly alternate genital pores and in the relation of the genital ducts to the excretory ducts, but is separated from it by the structure of the gravid uterus. Here the uterus breaks down into separate noncommunicating chambers or egg capsules, each capsule containing one or more eggs. It is the contention of Clerc