BY T. II. JOHNSTON AND J. B. CLELAND. 489 



MiCROFILAEIA SP. 



(Plate xvi., fig. 21). 



Filarial embryos were found in blood-films from a water- 

 lizard, Physiiinathus lesiieurii, kindly forwarded to us by Dr. T. 

 L. Bancroft, who captured it in the Burnett River, Queensland, 

 in December, 1910. The adults were not looked for, as tlie 

 presence of the microfilariae was not suspected. 



The general appearance of the embryos is as follows : — the 

 anterior four-fifths of the body is of a uniform breadth, the 

 remainder tapering gradually, to end rather abruptly in a 

 rounded extremity. The anterior end is broad and rounded. 

 No definite transverse striation could be detected on the very 

 delicate cuticle. A sheath is present. The main mass of 

 cells stain very deeply with Giemsa, a few small, scattered 

 masses occurring close to the anterior end. The various 

 "spots" or "breaks" are situated at intervals; the first, the 

 nerve-ring, lying near the junction of the anterior two-fifths 

 with the posterior three-fifths ; the second, the excretory 

 vesicle, lying midway between the nerve-ring and the pos- 

 terior extremity; and the third, the "anal spot," appearing 

 as a broad zone a little distance in front of the tail. The 

 first and second spots may be situated further back, and the 

 third may be rather long, with a few isolated cell-masses in 

 the middle of it. Behind the anal region, the cell-mass 

 extends backwards to the end of the worm. The embryos are 

 about 4-5 /x broad, and from 118-143 ju long. 



Very few filariae appear to have been recorded from the 

 blood of lizards, no record of their having been found previ- 

 ously in Australian lacertilians, being known to us. In 1904, 

 Castellani and Willey (1904, p. 79) referred to a filaria 

 (which they called F. inansoni) from a Ceylonese lizard, 

 Mahuia carinata Schn. As this name was preoccupied by 

 Cobbold in 1880, Linstow (1908, p. 172) renamed it F. tuher- 

 osa, giving a short account of the adult, which was found in 

 the peritoneum. He merely mentioned that the larvae 



