404 ON SOME H^MOGREGARINES BROM AUSTRALIAN REPTILES, 



These organisms were rather shorter and broader than the 

 crescents, being from 12 to 14 ;x long, by about 3 /x wide. Since 

 the erythrocytes are only about 19/x by 10 /x, the adult sporont 

 (the stage represented in our specimens) necessarily becomes bent, 

 as previously stated. Such forms are figured by Sambon.(l) That 

 these later stages represented sporonts and not schizonts, was 

 recognisable by their structural characters. They were more or 

 less club-shaped, one end being, however, only slightly broader; 

 their nuclei were situated, as a rule, near the middle, and were 

 generally well defined, consisting of a rather open chromatin 

 network extending across tlie organism in a band-like manner; 

 and the cytoplasm did not possess the refractive granules char- 

 acteristic of schizonts. 



The host-cells were not distorted, though their nuclei were 

 frequently pushed aside and lay close to the edge, often nearer 

 one end of the erythrocyte. 



H^MOGREGARINA MORELI^, n.sp. 



(Plate xxxiv., figs. 1-1 2.) 



My colleague. Dr. J. B. Cleland, handed over to me, for 

 examination, a number of blood-films from Western Australian 

 animals, including a tortoise, Ckelodina oblonya Gra3'(?), and a 

 carpet-snake, Python spilotes var. varieyata. 



The snake was captured on the Abrolhos Islands, a small 

 group off the west coast of West Australia. A blood-film taken 

 from it showed the presence of numerous h^mogregarines in the 

 red cells. These appeared to me to differ from H. shattocki in 

 several details, and, consequently, a new species is proposed for 

 them. It is quite possible that further investigation of the 

 haemogregarines of the carpet-snake may lead to the fusion of 

 this species with //. shattocki. The examination of the blood 

 from parasitised carpet-snakes taken at localities between these 

 two extreme parts (eastern and western) of the continent would 

 settle the validity or otherwise of the proposed species. For the 

 specific name, I have borrowed the old generic name (a synonym) 

 of this reptile [Morelia varieyata Gray). 



