355] XORTH AMERICAN PARAMPHISTOMIDAE—STUNKARD 75 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE FAMILY 



Our present classification of the Paramphistomidae is largely the 

 result of the work of Monticelli, Otto, Fischoeder, Colin. Daday, Stiles 

 and Goldberger, Looss, and Odhner. 



The first division of the group was made by Monticelli (1892) 

 when he separated Gastrodiscus from the rest and created the subfamily 

 Gastrodiscinae. Fischoeder in a series of papers described several spe- 

 cies from mammals, and formulated (1903) the second scheme of classi- 

 fication. He created two subfamilies: Paramphistominae in which the 

 testes are lobed, and paired oral evaginations and cirrus sac are absent ; 

 and Cladorchinae characterized by branched testes and the presence of 

 paired oral evaginations and cirrus sac. Recent additions to our knowl- 

 edge of the family have, however, rendered it difficult to use these dis- 

 tinctions satisfactorily. Cohn (1904) created the subfamily Diplodisc- 

 inae to contain the genera Diplodiscus, Opisthodiscus, and Catadiscus. 

 He characterized the subfamily as follows : ' ' Amphistomiden von ged- 

 rungener, konischer Form und runden Querschnitt. Mundsaugnapf gut 

 ausgebildet, mit zwei retrodorsal Taschen. Ein grosser Endsaugnapf, 

 iiber welchem dorsal der Excretionsporus liegt. Mundoffnung termi- 

 nal, Darmschenkel bis zu Endsaugnapf reichend, relativ sehr breit. 

 Leben im Enddarm von Amphibien und Reptilien." The characteriza- 

 tion is inadequate, since the anatomical features are shared by almost 

 half the members of the family, and obviously further study of this 

 group is necessary to establish its validity and determine its true diag- 

 nostic features. 



Stiles and Goldberger (1910) proposed a new classification of the 

 group. They created a new superfamily Paramphistomoidea to contain 

 the forms previously classed as amphistomes. They removed Gastrodis- 

 cus Leuck., and Homalogaster Poir. from Fischoeder 's subfamily Clad- 

 orchinae and created a new family Gastrodiscidae to contain these gen- 

 era. They created another new family Gastrothylacidae to contain the 

 general Gastrothylax, "Wellmanius, Carmyerius, and Fischoederius. The 

 family Paramphistomidae and the two cited above comprise the three 

 families in the superfamily Paramphistomoidea. Stiles and Goldberger 

 also created a new subfamily Stephanopharynginae to contain the genus 

 Stephanopharynx, and added the new genus Cotylophoron to the sub- 

 family Paramphistominae. They recognize further the subfamily Dip- 

 lodiscinae Cohn and list the four subfamilies Paramphistominae, Cla- 

 dorchinae, Diplodiscinae, and Stephanopharynginae in the family Par- 

 amphistomidae. They placed Balanorchis in the subfamily Cladorchinae 

 notwithstanding Fischoeder 's statement that such an arrangement could 

 not be considered. 



