188 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vi 



Localities. — Texas: Eagle Lake (type), and Houston; Tennessee: 

 Nashville, Stone Eiver Park, Mount Juliet, and Reelfoot Lake; 

 Georgia : Augusta and Athens ; Michigan : East Lansing. 



Molluscan host. — Deroceras laeve (Miiller). 



Type specimen. — U.S.N.M. Helm. Coll. No. 36740. Additional spec- 

 imens, Nos. 36741, 36742, 36743, and 36744. 



Remarks. — Conspicuum icteridorum is described from some 70 speci- 

 mens obtained from the gall bladders of the six hosts collected in the 

 various localities listed above. Of 50 individuals of the avian host 

 species examined by us, 42 percent were infected with this trematode. 

 Individual birds harbored 1 to 18 worms, 5 being the average per 

 bird. The bronzed grackle, Quisculits quiscula aeneus, has been found 

 infected more often than the other host species. 



Conspicuum icteridorum is more closely related to C. conspicuum 

 (Faria, 1912) as redescribed by Travassos (1944) than to other mem- 

 bers of the genus. The present material cannot be assigned to that 

 species because of one striking and several minor differences. Travas- 

 sos emphasizes that in C. conspicuum the vasa efferentia fuse to form 

 a long vas deferens about midway between the testes and cirrus pouch 

 and states that this curious arrangement has been observed in only 

 one other Brazilian dicrocoeliid, Concinnum ellipticum (Travassos, 

 1941). In our material from all six hosts the vasa efferentia remain 

 separated up to the point of entrance into the cirrus pouch. Although 

 little or no significance is attached to ^gg size as a distinguishing 

 characteristic of dicrocoeliids, it should be pointed out that a large 

 number of ova from mature specimens of C. icteridorum collected from 

 various hosts from various localities have been shown to be consistently 

 smaller than the ova of C. conspicuum. Conspicuum icteridorwn also 

 differs from C. conspicuum in having the anterior segment of the 

 body relatively more reduced and the uterus in that portion less ex- 

 tensively developed. The cirrus pouch is relatively larger and extends 

 well behind the intestinal bifurcation in all specimens, and as far as 

 the anterior margin of the acetabulum in many. The gonads are 

 usually rounded though in some old specimens they show a tendency 

 to be slightly lobed. 



CONSPICUUM MACRORCHIS. new species 

 FiGUEE 39, c 



Diagnosis. — Body elongated, rather thick and muscular, 4.27 to 

 5.47 mm. long by 1.40 to 2.04 mm. wide, widest in region between testes 

 and ovary. Cuticle thick, without spines, longitudinally striated anc 

 finely wrinkled transversely, and with retractile sensory papillae, 

 which are visible only on margins of preacetabular region of body 

 Oral sucker strongly muscular, subterminal, preceded dorsally by a 





