278 



ON MOREAUIA MIRABILIS. gen. et sp.nov., A REMARK- 

 ABLE TREMATODE PARASITIC IN ORNITHO- 

 RtlYNCHUS. 



By 8. J. Johnston, B.A., D.Sc, Department of Zoology, 

 University of Sydney. 



(Plates xxxviii.-xxxix.) 



The worms forming the subject of this paper were found by 

 Mr. S. J. H. Moreau, who, in January of this year, accompanied 

 me on a collecting trip to the Fish River district, on the western 

 side of the Blue Mountains. Six specimens of Ornithorhynchus 

 were shot on this expedition, and the two which harboured the 

 trematodes under consideration were found in tlie Duckmaloi, a 

 tributary of the Fish River. 



About the end of March, from two specimens of Platypus out 

 of the same river, twenty-one of these trematodes were obtained. 

 The worms lie in the intestine transversely, almost, or sometimes 

 quite hidden by the transverse folds of the mucous membrane. 

 They occur in the region beginning at the pyloric constriction 

 and reaching backwards for twelve or fifteen inches. They lie 

 so well hidden, that a careful search is necessary in order to 

 bring them to light. They cling very tightly, and some effort is 

 required to displace them by means of a camel's hair brush. 



With this remarkable trematode from the Platypus, which he 

 was instrumental in bringing to light, I wish to associate the 

 name of Mr. Moreau, a student of Sydney University, and a very 

 enerf'etic and able collector of zoological and embryological 

 material, to whom I am indebted for a considerable number of 

 Entozoa. Hence the generic name. 



The occurrence of a second trematode in the Platypus, so 

 different from the already known Mehlisia ornithorhynchi, which 

 I have previously described from that host(3,4), seems to be of 

 special interest. 



