PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Issued 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

 U, S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 90 Washington: 1941 No. 3112 



CESTODE PARASITES OF TELEOST FISHES OF THE WOODS 

 HOLE REGION, MASSACHUSETTS 



By Edwin Linton^ 



Only those cestodes that pass their adult stage in teleosts are 

 considered in this report. For records of encysted and larval stages 

 of cestodes whose final host is a selachian, see a previous paper of 

 mine.^ While the encysted stage of selachian cestodes is found in 

 both teleosts and selachians, the encysted stage of teleost cestodes has 

 not been found in selachians. In a few instances teleost cestodes have 

 been found in the stomachs of selachians, but the evidence in such 

 cases pointed to their recent introduction with the food, and the 

 usually more or less macerated condition of the strobilae showed that 

 the selachian could not be regarded as the true fmal host. 



The cestodes of selachian habitats belong to widely different family 

 groups from those passing the adult stage in teleosts. Further, so far 

 at least as their mature cestode parasites may be considered to figure, 

 the groups of selachians and teleosts are as distinct from each other 

 as either of them is distinct from the other classes of vertebrates. 



This account is based on collections of the late Vinal N. Edwards, 

 of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, which were made in each 

 month of the year for many years, and upon collections made by me 

 in the summer months over a long series of years at the Woods Hole 

 laboratory of the Bureau of Fisheries. The authority for the scientific 

 names of fishes used is Jordan, Evermann, and Clark's check list.^ 



• Died June 3, 1939. 



> Notes on cestode parasites of sharks and skates. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 04, art. 21, pp. 1-114, pis. 

 1-13, 1924. 



> Check list of the fishes and fishlike vertebrates of North and Middle America north of the northern 

 boundary of Venezuela and Colombia. Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish, for 1928, pt. 2, 670 pp., 1930. 



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