THKEE NEW TREMATODES FROM AMPHIUMA MEANS. 



By Asa C. Chandlef 



Of the Biological Lahorutonj, Rice Inslitute, Houston, Teuuis. 



Early in May, 1922, a single large male specimen of Amphiuma 

 means received from Louisiana was examined for parasites, and 

 found to contain, in addition to five or six specimens of a nema- 

 tode, presumably Filaria amphiumae^ encysted in the walls of the 

 digestive tract, three species of flukes, all of which proved to be new 

 species. It is interesting to note that one of the species, Telorchis 

 stunkardi^ new species, belongs to a genus which has hitherto not 

 been known to occur in hosts other than reptiles; another, Cepha- 

 logonimits amphiumae. new species, belongs to a genus which is rep- 

 resented in both reptiles and amphibians ; and the third, Megalodis- 

 cus americanus^ new species, belongs to an entirely new genus, the 

 nearest relatives of which are found in fishes and amphibians. Each 

 species of fluke was found to occupy a particular portion of the 

 digestive tract. Ceplialofioninins aviphiumae was found in about 

 the third fourth of the digestive tract, intermingling in the posterior 

 portion of its habitat Avith Telorchis stunkardl. Specimens of the 

 latter occurred chiefly in the fourth fifth of the digestive tract. Of 

 the third species, Megalodiscus americanus, only three specimens 

 Avere found, all of them located in the rectum near the cloaca. 



CEPHALOGONIMUS AMPHIUMAE, new species. 



Plate 1, fig. 1. 



Diagnosis. — Body 4.4 to 5.3 mm. in length, with a maximum width 

 of from 1.22 to 1.3 mm., ovoid, flattened, widest in the third fifth 

 of the body length, tapering thence toward both ends, which are 

 bluntly rounded. Cuticle thickly covered with minute spines an- 

 teriorly, these becoming less numerous posteriorly, and absent en- 

 tirely from the posterior third. Oral sucker 0.42 to 0.43 mm. in di- 

 ameter, larger than the ventral sucker, which measures, Avhen round, 

 from 0.3G8 to 0.38 mm. in diameter. Center of ventral sucker about 

 1.2 mm., two-seA'enths of body length, from anterior end. Pharynx 

 about 0.192 mm. in diameter, preceded by a short prepharynx and 



No. 2471. -Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 63. Art. 3. 



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