ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICEOSCOPY, ETC. 199 



The eggs are fertilized within the female and are laid in long strings 

 on water-weeds from April to August. A larva emerges, with a pro- 

 boscis armed with bristles and hooks and a boring apparatus ; it swims 

 or crawls until it is able to penetrate into a larval insect (midge, alderfly, 

 mayfly, water-beetle, etc.) or occasionally into some odd host, such as 

 leech, fish or frog. It rests through the winter within the larvnl insect, 

 most frequently in the muscular tissue, and is found in spring in the 

 adult. The infected adult insect falls a prey to a carnivorous beetle, and 

 in this the juvenile stage of the hairworm is reached. The body elongates 

 until it all but fills the abdomen of the beetle, whence, after a period of 

 development which has lasted a year and a half, it issues, a free and 

 almost mature individual. It seeks the nearest water and there finallv 

 reproduces. The adult fasts, for the alimentary tract degenerates. 

 The oesophagus is blocked by a solid mass of cells, an 1 the mouth is 

 closed by a plug of cuticle. An interesting note is made on the hair- 

 worm's head, which is paler than the rest of the body. Great use of it 

 is made in locomotion, during which it is closely apposed to the stems 

 of water-weeds and the like. Experiments made with Paracliordodes 

 violaceus whirled in a glass vessel showed that the head is pressed 

 closely and at right-angTes against the surface of the glass. The tip, 

 especially the pale central portion, is pressed flat against the surface. 

 It is possible that there may be an adhesive secretion, and an inquiry 

 into this is in progress. 



The diagnostic features of special value relate to the hinder end, 

 which is forked in the males, and shows minute bristles or thickenings 

 in varied patterns. As important are the markings on the cuticle, which 

 are of three grades : an exceedingly fine diagonal meshwork, resembling 

 on a delicate scale the " stipple " of a half-tone process block ; a series 

 of larger patterns of varying design — circles, areoles, meshes, etc. ; and 

 distinct protuberances or papillae, sometimes with associated hair-like 

 growths. The author describes the faceted hairworm, Paracliordodes 

 violaceus Baird, or Gordius violaceus ; the large-spot hairworm, Para- 

 cliordodes tolosanus Dujardin, or Gordnis tolosanus ; the lined hair- 

 worm, Paracliordodes pleslcei Camerano from Shetland, which is new not 

 only to Britain but to Europe : and the mottled hairworm, Gordius 

 villoti Rosa, new to Great Britain, recently recorded by Camerano from 

 Ireland. 



Platyhelniinthes. 



New Tapeworm from a Parakeet.* — F. J. Meggitt found in dis- 

 secting a Brazilian parakeet {Brotogerys tirica) several large tapeworms 

 of the genus Gotugnia. They occurred in the duodenum, almost filling 

 it. A new species, G. brotogerys, has to be established. The genus 

 Gotugnia was created by Diamare for those avian Cestodes which have a 

 douljle set of male and female reproductive organs in each proglottis, 

 and a rostellum armed with T-shaped hooks. The suckers are oval, 

 unarmed, imbricate ; there is no neck ; the segments are trapezoidal 

 and imbricate ; the genital pore is situated at the anterior third of the 



* Parasitology, viii. (1915) pp. 42-55 (2 pis. and 4 figs.). 



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