A NEW SPECIES OF TKEMATODE WORM OF THE GENUS 

 ORNITHOBILHARZIA FROM A CANADIAN GOOSE 



By Rudolf Wetzel, 

 College of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany 



Price (1929) has recently published a synopsis of the trematode 

 family Schistosomidae, including in it descriptions of three new 

 genera and species from North American hosts. In the present 

 paper an additional new species is de'scribed. This schistosome was 

 collected from a Canadian goose {Branta canadensis canadensis) 

 forwarded to the Zoological Division of the Bureau of Animal Indus- 

 try by Mr. W. L. McAtee of the Bureau of Biological Survey, the 

 bird having been caught at Back Bay, Virginia. This fluke belongs 

 to the subfamily Schistosominae Stiles and Hassall, 1898, and to the 

 genus Ormthobilharzia Odhner, 1912. For this species the name 

 Ornithohilharzia pricei is proposed. The description is based upon 

 three males and three females, one of the latter being immature and 

 another incomplete. 



The characters of the genus as given by Price (1929) are as follows : 



ORNITHOBILHARZIA Odhner, 1912 



/Synonym. — MacroMlharBia Travassos, 1923. 



Generic diagnosis. — Schistosominae : Female shorter than male. 

 Male with well formed gynaecophoric canal, formed by an infolding 

 of the lateral edges of the body. Suckers present. Cuticle covered 

 with spines. Digestive tract similar to that in Schistosoma; intest- 

 inal ceca long and showing a tendency to form several anastomoses; 

 before finally uniting to form the common cecum. Testes numerous' 

 (60 or more), commonly a short distance caudad of acetabulum, and 

 extending into posterior half of body. Cirrus pouch rudimentary 

 or absent. Seminal vesicle free in parenchyma; prostate absent. 

 Genital pore small and situated immediately caudad of acetabulum. 

 Female elongate, slender, and flattened. Ovary elongated, loosely or 

 tightly coiled, and situated in anterior third of body. Vitellaria 



No. 2848.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 78, Art. 3. 



2fi05— 30 1 



