TWO NEW GENERA OF NEMATODES, WITH A NOTE ON A 

 NEGLECTED NEMATODE STRUCTURE. 



By Maurice C. Hall, 



Senior Zoologist, United States Bureau of Animal Industry. 



In this paper two species are removed from two large genera, in 

 which they do not belong, for the sake of accuracy and convenience, 

 the present names being erroneous and misleading, and the species of 

 such economic interest as to make accurate naming desirable. A 

 very distinctive structure, present in one of these worms, has been 

 found to be frequently present in nematodes, but apparently over- 

 looked or misinterpreted. It is given the name of "telamon" in this 

 paper. 



One of the species for which a new genus is necessary is Filaria 

 osleri from the trachea and bronchi of the dog. This species was 

 originally called Strongylus canis bronchialis by Osier in 1877, but as 

 it has none of the distinctive characters of Strongylus in even the broad 

 sense in which that term was used by the older zoologists, and as it has 

 a trinomial name instead of a binomial name, it was renamed Filaria 

 osleri by Cobbold in 1879. At the present time there are over 900 

 specific names and variations in the genus Filaria, and F. osleri is so 

 remote from the type species, F. martis Gmelin, 1790, from the mink, 

 that the worm ought not to be placed in the superfamily Filarioidea. 

 I have been unable to obtain specimens of this worm for study, and 

 the existing descriptions are unsatisfactory, but the fact that the worm 

 has so little in common with Filara makes it advisable to remove it 

 from this genus. As it does not seem to fit any existing genus, I am 

 proposing a new genus for it, naming the genus in honor of the late 

 Dr. William Osier, who discovered the worm and after whom the 

 species is named. Tentatively the worm is referred to the super- 

 family Spiruroidea. 



OSLERUS, new genus. 



Generic diagnosis. — Spiruroidea: Small worms (up to 1.5 cm. long 

 according to Rabe). Mouth structure uncertain; probably without 

 distinct lips (according to Osier the mouth is simple and the conical 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 59— No. 2386. 



541 



