Diplectanotrema balistes is indicated from Balistes capriscus 

 Gm. (=B. carolinensis Gm) {Balistidae, Tetrodontiformes), Acanthurus 

 (= Teuthis ) hepatus (L. ) (Acanthuridae, Perciformes), and Anisotremus 

 virginicus (L. ) (Pomadasyidae, Perciformes). At first it was described 

 as Diplectanuin balistes by MacCallum in 1915 from the first host and then 

 in 1916 also by him under a different name (D. plurovltellum ) from two 

 other fishes. Later Johnston and Teigs (Johnston and Tiegs, 1922) isolated 

 D. plurovltellum Into the special genus Diplectanotrema, whereas Price 

 (Price, 1937c) made D. plurovitellum synonymous with D. b alistes, pre- 

 serving the new name of the genus. As a result, if one is to recognize the 

 opinion of Price about the conspecificity of both species we must consider 



1 



It seems to us that in the given case Price is mistaken and MacCallum 

 correctly divides these two species. The structure of the vitellaria in D. 

 plurovitellum is so characteristic that it alone distinguishes the given species 

 from D. baiistes. The references to poor preparations (Price, 1937c) are 

 without foundation, because during fixation and in any condition of the sub- 

 ject the shape of the vitellaria such as it is among D. balistes, is similar 

 to the one among all lowest Monogenoidea, and it cannot change to such an 

 extent as to become similar to the one possessed by D. plurovitellum 

 which MacCallum and Price picture the same. Thus it is more probable 

 that we deal here with two species of which one is encountered on the 

 syngnathids and the second on the perciformids. 



that D. balistes are encountered on the fishes of two orders. With this one 

 cannot fail to note that in spite of the fact that they are related to two 

 different orders (see page 270) Balistidae and Acanthuridae are closer to 

 each other than the last family is to Pomadasyidae although they are both 

 Perciformes, that is related to each other in son^e degree. One must also 

 explain that in all cases of the finding of D. balistes the fishes were taken 

 fronn the New York Aquarium, i.e. , from artificial conditions where the 

 possibility of more wide infection than occurs in nature is not excluded. 



In the literature Diclidophora palmata is indicated on Molva 

 ^ >2 



molva (L. ), Gadus morrhua L. (Gadidae, Gadiformes) and Hippoglossus 



Indication of the finding of D. palmata on Odontogadus merlangus (L. ) 

 (Stiles and Hassal, I9O8), which has not been substantiated by any one as 

 yet, has not been taken into consideration by us. 



hippoglossus (L. ) (Bothidae, Pleuronectiformes). During verification the 

 indications of the finding (of this parasite, nobis) on the two last species 

 were found to be inexact. Thus the reference of Sproston (Sproston, 1946) 



249 



