A NEW NEMATODE, RICTULARIA SPLENDIDA, FROM THE 

 COYOTE, WITH NOTES ON OTHER COYOTE PARASITES. 



By Maurice C. Hall, 



0} the Bureau of Animal Industry United States Department of Agriculture. 



The coyote, as a carrier of parasites, may be looked upon, for most 

 purposes, as a common dog running wild. All the available evidence 

 indicates that parasites of either the coyote or the dog could certamly 

 be transmitted, under favorable conditions, to the other animal. 

 The parasites of the coyote have, therefore, practically the same 

 considerable economic importance that those of the dog have. If 

 they are detrimental to the coyote, it would be to our mterest to see 

 that they are permitted to thrive, provided it were feasible to do so. 

 It is not always feasible or desirable, for the reason that the coyote 

 may transmit such parasites, directly or indirectly, to dogs, to the 

 injury of the dogs and of other animals m which some of these para- 

 sites may pass intermediate stages of then- life-history. 



Whether the parasite described below has any pathological, and 

 hence economic, significance is not known. Its remarkable arma- 

 ture and mouth structure, and the fact that other species of the 

 same genus have been reported as red when collected, a thing sugges- 

 tive of a blood-sucking habit, indicate that the worm may be quite 

 injurious to its host. On the other hand, species and specimens of 

 the genus involved are comparatively rare, so that there is little evi- 

 dence at present to show that the worm has any particular economic 

 significance. 



Superfamily STRONGYLOIDEA Weinland, 1858. 



Swperfamily diagnosis. — Meromyarian or polymyarian. Males with 

 a caudal bursa supported by rays; in forms near the outer limit of the 

 superfamily the bursa is occasionally very small and the rays atypical, 

 or the bursa may be lacking altogether, the species in question being 

 only referable to this superfamily on the ground that transitional, but 

 recognizably strongyle forms, found at times m the same locations 

 and with the same habits, relate them to it. Esophagus without 

 posterior bulb. Mouth naked or with a buccal capsule and six papiUse 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 46— No. 2012. 



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