492 



NOTES ON NEMATODES OF THE GENUS PHIHALOPIEEA, WITH 

 SPECIAL KEFEKENCE TO THOSE PAI^ASITIC IN KEPTILES. 



Pakt i. 



By Vera A. Irwin-Smitm, B.Sc, F.L.S., Linncan Macleay Fellow ol' the 



Society in Zoology. 



The geuus I'lii/naLopttra was established by Rudolphi iu 1819, to mclude five 

 species separated from the genus Spiruptera. It is characterised by the presence 

 of two lateral lips armed with teeth at the extremity, and, in the male, a closed 

 lanceolate bursa, embracing the base of the tail and bearing four pairs of 

 pedunculated papillae, in addition to a variable number of other papillae. 



Two monographs have been published on it, botli in Italian, one by Moiin 

 in 1860, and the second by Stossieh in 1889. Rudolphi in his original diagnosis, 

 liad shown some doubt about his elassitication (''Alias enim artiliciosum esse 

 facile concedo", Entoz. Synop., p. 236), and, in consequence of this, Dujardin, 

 in 1845, suppressed the new genus, and reunited all its species, provisionally, 

 with the genus Spiroptera, "en attendant que toutes les especes soient suffisam- 

 ment connues pour qu'on puisse etablir, d'apres leur organisation plusieurs 

 coupes generiques" (Hist. nat. d.'llclm., p. 83). Its definite reestablishment is 

 due to Diesing who published a well-defined diagnosis in 1851, and repeated it, 

 with some slight additions, in 1857 (j>. 16). In liis "Revision der Nematoden," 

 published in 1860, al'tcr the appearance of !Mo]in"s nxjuograph, he gave a 

 further amended diagnosis : — "Corpus clongatum teretiusculum. Caput corpore 

 continuuni, bilabiatuni, labiis externe papillis exornatis, interne dentibus armatis. 

 Os ad basin labiorum. Extremilas caudalis maris utrinque <data, alis inllatis 

 antice vesica conjunctis, ad aperturam genitalem quadricostatis. Penis vagina 

 monopetala. Apertura genitalis feniinca in anteriore corporis parte; uterus 

 bicornis. Ovipara. Mannualiuin, Avium et praeeipue Amphibiorum: in 

 oesophago et ventricuhi, rarius in intestinis, rarissime in cavo orbitae endo- 

 parasita." Since that (hdc the validity of the genus lias never been questioned, 

 Schneider rightly remarking (186(i, \^. 59) that I'Inisaloptera is one of the best 

 of Rudolphi's genera. 



Diesing used the term "Amiihibioruiu" in the original Linnean sense, which 

 did not distinguish between Amphibia and Reptilia. None of the species known 

 at that time had been found in Amphibia, and, with a single exception, all tlio 

 species recorded up to the present have been found in tlie higher Vertebrates, 

 carnivorous species of mammals, birds and reptiles. They are almost invariably 

 found in the alimentary canal. 



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