ILLINOIS BIOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS [246 



GENERAL REMARKS ON RECENT OBSERVATIONS 



The total number of species of Myxosporidia reported up to date and 

 described in the following pages, excluding 12 ambiguous forms, reaches 

 237 of which 125 are species which have been observed since 1910.* 

 The distribution of these new forms is as follows: 



Africa 6 species 



Asia 23 species 



Australia 1 species 



Europe 31 species 



North America 63 species 



South America 1 species 



Thus, the majority of the species were observed in other lands than 

 Europe, nearly half being recorded from North American waters. It is not 

 hard to anticipate from the observations made by Awerinzew, Davis, 

 Kudo, Mavor, Johnston and Bancroft, and others, that further investiga- 

 tions on the parasites in the localities where the study of the protozoa 

 under consideration was neglected, will bring out not only new and inter- 

 esting forms which will be quite different from the comparatively well 

 studied European species, but also many important facts that will clear 

 unknown or doubtful phases concerning the life history and structure of 

 Myxosporidia. 



* Three species are included here which have been described (in Nipponese) by Miyairi 

 in 1909. 



