Art. VII. — Remarks on a Fluke Parasitic in the 

 Copper-Jiead Snake. 



By D. Mc Alpine, F.C.S. 



[Read June 12, 1890.] 



While on a botanical excursion to Oakleigh on 19th April 

 last, in connection with the Field Naturalists' Club, and 

 under the leadership of Mr. French, Government Entomolo- 

 gist, this specimen of copper-head snake was met with and 

 killed on the spot. 



On dissecting it a few hours later, for the purpose of 

 studying the beating heart, numerous flukes were found 

 in it of a still undetermined species. Professor Baldwin 

 Spencer* gave a short account of a Pentastomum parasitic in 

 the lung, before this Society, but I am not aware of any 

 flukes having been hitherto recorded. In the lists of 

 Ophidian Trernatodes, as far as I am able to trace them, 

 there is no mention of the copper-head snake as a host, so 

 that the determination and description of this one will have 

 to be given more fully afterwards. This fluke is apparently 

 a common one, for on opening another copper-head snake, 

 they were found to be abundant. 



Occurrence. — They occupied the trachea and gullet in vast 

 numbers, as well as the lung and anterior end of the stomach. 

 Some of them were moving towards the mouth opening, and 

 were thus free on the interior ot the trachea or gullet, while 

 others were adherent to the walls of these organs. A few 

 were found in the mouth, evidently making their way out of 

 the dead body. 



It seems to be unusual to And flukes in both the 

 alimentary and respiratory systems, as in none of the snakes 

 to which I can find a reference is this the case. But here 

 they are so numerous in both, that it is difficult to say 



* Proc. Roy. Soc. Vic, Vol. I (New Series), 1889. 



