Type and only genus, Bothitrema Price, 1936. 



Price, who described the genus Bothitrema with the single 

 species B. bothi (MacCallum 1913)^ separated it into a special subfamily 

 Bothitrematinae relating it to Dactylogyridae. At the same time Price 

 wrote that, "this species is an aberrant representative of Dactylogyridae, 

 which is located between this family and Monocotylidae. The absence of 

 lateral cephalic glands points towards its proximity to Monocotylidae, 

 whereas the presence of a ciiticular connecting plate between the middle 

 hooks includes this form into the family (Dactylogyridae--B. B. ). " We 

 succeeded in explaining that, although the considerations of Price are 



p. 395 



OlHfi 



Fig. 286. Bothitrema bothi (MacCallum), chitinous armature of the 

 attaching disc of an adult worm from the gills of Lophopsetta maculata 

 (Mitch, ) from the region of Woods Hole (Atlantic Ocean). 



partially correct, nevertheless there are no bases whatsoever to ascribe 

 D. bothii either to Dactylogyridae or to Monocotylidae, and this form is a 

 representative of a special family relating to the order Tetraonchidae. 

 First of all, in spite of the fact that during the redescription of D. bothii 

 Price points to the presence in it of 14 edge hooks actually there are 16 

 of them (Fig. 286). Thus, the attribution of this species ;o DacMogjrridae 

 is already incorrect. There are also a number of less important bases 

 for separation of this form into a special family. Thus the structure of the 

 attaching disc shows (Fig. 287) that it functions as a sucker and that the 

 pipe-shaped plates constitute a supporting complex which gives the disc 

 the ability to maintain a changing but relatively considerable depth. 

 Judging by a number of specimens which were at our disposal and w^hich 

 were removed directly by us from the gills of the fishes (fixed), the 

 basic role in attachment is fulfilled by the disc itself and only to a lesser 

 degree by the middle hooks. As regards the edge hooks, they do not play 

 any role at all in the attachment of adult forms or if they do play a role it 

 is a minimal one. Thus, the attaching apparatus of Bothitrema functions 



473 



