60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. voi,. 55. 



a note to the effect that the parasite would receive further attention 

 later. Through the courtesy of Doctor Gaiger, specimens of the 

 coenurus from the goat and of the tapeworm from the dog were 

 furnished to the United States Bureau of Animal Industry, and an 

 examination of these showed them to be a new species. That there 

 are no rabbits in India, a fact Gaiger (1909, 530) has himself noted, 

 would suggest something of the sort. The specimens of the adult 

 worm are much smaller than the largest specimens noted by Dey, 

 but as the size depends largely on whether fresh material is measured 

 in a stretched condition or preserved material is measured on a flat 

 surface this is a small matter. In the specimen which I have desig- 

 nated as type, the segments are mature about 5.5 to 6.5 cm. back of 

 the head. The general anatomy of the species is much more nearly 

 that of M. muUiceps than M. serialis. The strobila is delicate and the 

 vagina shows a peculiar bend which is strongly suggestive of the con- 

 dition in M. muUicejJS. The hooks are also suggestive of M. multi- 

 ceps. Gaiger states that the small hook has a bifid guard, but this 

 statement is often made of tapeworms that do not have a bifid guard. 

 In these cases, as in this species, there is an appearance of bifidity 

 found on focusing which is due to the fact that the lateral margins 

 of the guard are commonly thickened and the median ventral portion 

 thinned and often slightly grooved, but such conditions must be dif- 

 ferentiated from the condition of true bifidity which is found in such 

 hooks as those of Taenia pisiformis. 



An examination of the larva shows it to be more closely related 

 to M. multiceps than to M. serialis morphologically. Placed in a 

 dish with typical specimens of these species it resembles the former 

 much more than the latter, and the same is true of scolices detached 

 from all three species. Gaiger (1907) states "there was a very dis- 

 tinct tendency in most cysts towards budding off of daughter cysts, 

 and although actual separation of a daughter cyst was not seen, in 

 one case there was a distinct neck dividing off a portion of the parent 

 cyst. Internal budding was complete and many of the cysts were 

 floating free. The daughter cysts were never more than 2 mm. 

 broad and 4 long, and were always egg-shaped with one head at the 

 narrow end. The majority of them were attached by a minute 

 pedicle to the parent cyst, but could be easily detached, and often 

 they were present in bunches, both attached and free." I find on 

 examination that a striking feature of this species, so far as the 

 available material is concerned, is the extraordinary ease with which 

 the heads detach from the bladder wall and so come to lie free in 

 the internal fluid. The great majority of the heads in the available 

 specimen are free and lie in a mass inside the bladder, their former 

 position being marked by neat prominent apertures perforating the 

 bladder wall. This is the obvious explanation of Gaiger's statement 



