110 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. 50. 



ber of round ciiticular knobs, which project into the buccal cavity 

 (fig. 131). Vulva a short distance in front of the anus ( ?). 

 Tyye-species. — Trachy pharynx migeHcm Leiper, 1911. 



TRACHYPHARYNX NIGERIAE Leiper, 1911. 



Specif c diagnosis. — Trachy pharynx (p. 109) : Number of leaves in 

 internal and external crown of corona radiata undetermined. Buc- 

 cal capsule pear-shaped. 

 Male 11 mm. long. 



Female 15 mm. long and 460 ]}. thick. Esophagus 

 1.25 mm. long from the base of the anterior tliird 

 of the buccal capsule to the beginning of the in- 

 testine. The esophageal musculature enclosing the 

 posterior two-thirds of the buccal capsule is 6 [jl 

 thick ; the musculature in the posterior third of the 

 esophagus is 130 [jl thick. Anus almost at the 

 posterior end of the body. Vulva a short distance 

 anterior of the anus. 

 Host. — ^" A large rodent." 

 Location. — Not given. 

 Locality. — Nigeria, Africa. 

 It seems highly desirable that the generic char- 

 acters be indicated in the proposal of a new genus. 

 If a person has a reason for proposing a new 

 genus, the reason is laiown to him, and it calls for 

 little effort to state it. To leave it to some one 

 else to write one's generic diagnosis is very un- 

 satisfactory. It should be unsatisfactory to the 

 man who names the genus, since it may readily 

 happen that the man writing the diagnosis 

 does not evaluate characteristics in the same way he does. It cer- 

 tainly is unsatisfactory to the writer of the diagnosis. It is bad 

 enough when the type of the new genus is a common species that 

 may be studied readily. It is much Avorse when the ncAV species 

 is an obscure one, poorly described, and not available to workers in 

 general. This is not detracting from the importance of designating a 

 type-species. Modern workers should write generic diagnoses for 

 their new genera and also designate type-species. To omit either of 

 these things is productive of trouble and confusion. 



I have assumed that the measurements given for the esophagus by 

 Leiper refer to the females. His figures do not bear out his state- 

 ments in regard to the thickness of the esophageal musculature. He 

 states that the posterior end of the male was embedded in a thick 

 brown prostatic secretion and so was not studied; the important 

 bursa characteristics are therefore unknown. 



Fig. 134. — Trachy- 

 phaeynx nige- 

 RIAE. Anterior 



EXTREMITY. EN- 

 LARGED. After 

 Leiper, 1911. 



