294 BULLETIN 140, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



SERTICEPS VULVOINFLATA (Molin, 1860) Railliet, 1916a 



Synonym. — Spiroptera vulvoinflata Molin, 18606. 



Host. — Primary: Trochilus ochropygus; secondary: Unknown. 



Location. — Between the tunics of the gizzard. 



Morphology. — Serticeps (p. 293) : Mouth with 6 small lips, each 

 bearing a papilla. Body densely striated transversely; anterior ex- 

 tremity noticeably 'attenuated, apex truncate. Molin described the 

 cephalic appendices simply as a crown of short horizontal spines. 

 Drasche describes them (figs. 357a and 358) as follows: Posterior to 

 the lips 2 thin lateral processes, shaped like a bird's tail, projecting 

 outwards. Farther posterior 2 dorsoventral, arched, outwardly 

 directed soft processes. Still more posterior 4 submedian, rectangu- 

 lar flaps directed outwards and turned under on the sides. Lastly 

 there follows a wreath of numerous processes of different sizes, pos- 

 teriorly directed. Between the dorsoventral and submedian wings 

 there project 4 large, long, club-shaped papillae, directed obliquely 



358. 



Figs. 357-358. — Serticeps vulvoinflata. 357, a, Head; 6, male tail. 358, 

 Labeled Spiroptera mediospiralis, but apparently incorrectly so. See text 

 for discussion. after draschd, 1884 



outward and forward. (The end face view (fig. 358) given by the 

 present writer, copied from Drasche, 1884, was labelled by Drasche 

 as Spiroptera mediospiralis while another figure of the same plate 

 (fig. 14) was labelled S. vulvoinflata. Since the figure given here, 

 Drasche's figure 16, agrees with the description of S. vulvoinflata 

 whereas his figure 14 does not, but on the other hand does agree with 

 the description of S. mediospiralis, it is evident that Drasche con- 

 fused the 2 labels.) 



Male 10 mm. long by 100/* wide. Caudal alae (fig. 3576) wide 

 and asymmetrical, the left wider than the right. Twelve pairs of 

 large pedunculated papillae, of which 10 are preanal, 2 postanal. 

 The distance between the first 11 papillae (counting from posterior 

 to anterior) is the same but the distance between the eleventh and 

 twelfth is twice as great as the former. Right spicule short and 

 thick ; the left spicule 8 times as long as the right, alate and pointed. 



Female 28 mm. long by 200/* wide. Caudal extremity long, acutely 



