60 PROCEEDIXGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol, 5a 



Genus habitat. — This genus burrows into the hiteral muscles of its 

 host and penetrates to the vertebral column; the tubular cephalic 

 processes adhere to the vertebrae, pass through the apertures in the 

 lateral hj-pophyses, and finally reach the peritoneum. 



J'l/pe of the genus. — Peroderma cylindricum Heller, monotypic 



(Peroderma, irdpw, to pierce, and oe'pjj-a, the skin.) 



Remarks. — The distinctions which separate this genus from Ler- 

 naeenicus and Cardlodectes are given elsewhere (p. 51). Ivichiardi, 

 from whose description and figures the above genus diagnosis is taken, 

 afterward (18S1) briefly described a second species, ;?e?em, and a j^ear 

 later a third species, heUottli, for neither of which were an}'' figures 

 given. This third species, again described and figured by Jungersen 

 in 1911, is here referred to the new genus Cai^diodectes (p. 52). 



AVith reference to the species jyetersi Eichiardi said that it dif- 

 fered from cyHndriciim in the greater development of the cephalo- 

 thorax, in the larger number of tubular cylindrical appendages, dis- 

 posed regularly in tufts, in the fact that the neck was straplike 

 instead of cylindrical, in the subterminal insertion of the neck in 

 the trunk, in the curvature of the trunk, and in the fact that the egg 

 strings were four in number instead of two, were coiled into a tight 

 spiral, and were separated a little distance from one another. "Wliat- 

 ever may have been the form which he thus described, it is reason- 

 ably certain that it did not belong to the genus Peroderma. 



The species hranchiata proposed by Bassett-Smith^ was not de- 

 scribed in sufficient detail to warrant its separation from cylindricum, 

 and it can not be established as a valid species until such distin- 

 guishing characters are forthcoming. 



Thus we are left with only the original type species. 



CARDIODECTES, new genus. 



External generic characters of female. — Cephalothotax ellipsoidal, 

 with a tripartite eye at the anterior end over the base of the esophagus 

 and not very deeply buried; entire anterior portion covered with 

 dichotomously branched processes, subcorneous in texture, which ra- 

 diate chiefl}^ from a pair of anterior horns and which form a spherical 

 mass nearly equal in diameter to the trunk; horns continued along the 

 lateral margins; neck hardened but remaining one-third the diameter 

 of the trunk, bent twice at right angles, first backward at the base 

 of the cephalothorax, then forward at about the center; trunk cylin- 

 drical and straight; abdomen hemispherical and dorsal, with a pair 

 of minute anal laminae ; Qgg strings long and straight, eggs tightly 

 packed. Two pairs of minute antennae, second pair chelate; one 

 pair of tiny maxillae; four pairs of swimming legs, first two pairs 



»Ann. Mag. Nat. Uist. (7), vol. 1, 1898, p. 13. 



