Kansas Academy of Science. 257 



THE DOMESTIC CAT A HOST OF THE DOG TAPEWORM, 

 T^NIA PISIFORMIS BLOCK. 



•J. E. AcKKRT and A. A. Grant. 



THE ability of certain carnivore cestodes to develop in more 

 than one host suggested the question, Will the common 

 dog tapeworm, Txnia pisiformis Bloch, develop in the domes- 

 tic cat (Felis domestica) ? 



Several kittens reared in cages covered with wire screen 

 (eighteen mesh) were given Cysticercus plsiformis from the 

 peritoneal cavity of the cottontail, Sylvilagus floridanics mear7i~ 

 sii, the intermediate host of this dog tapeworm. 



In the experiment, three control and eight experimental 

 kittens were used. When kittens 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29 and 32 

 were approximately six weeks old, feedings of cysticerci were 

 made every few days until from ten (kittens 27, 29, 32) to ap- 

 proximately seventy-five cysts had been fed to each kitten. The 

 examinations of these animals yielded the following results : 



Kitten 27, examined two days after feeding, three tape- 

 worms (length, 3.5 to 4 mm.) in the small intestine. 



Kitten 29 (died), examined two days after feeding, eight 

 tapeworms (length, 3.5 to 6 mm.) in the small intestine. 



Kitten 32 (died), examined five daj^s after feeding, five 

 tapeworms (length, 6 to 10 mm.) in the small intestine. 



Kitten 2h, examined twenty-one days after first feeding, two 

 tapeworms (length, 6 mm.) in the small intestine. 



Kitten 25, examined twenty-two days after first feeding, 

 three tapeworms (length, 10 mm.) in the small intestine. 



Kitten 23, examined fifty-two days after first feeding, four 

 tapeworms (length, 4, 5.5, 12.5, 22 mm.) in the small intestine. 



Kitten 22, examined ninety-eight day.-5 after first feeding, no 

 tapeworms. 



Of the cestodes obtained from these kittens, two from kit- 

 ten 23 were developed to the extent of having reproductive 

 organs fully formed. The number and size of the rostellar 

 hooks of all of the tapeworms obtained (twenty-nine), together 

 with ihe double ovary, single median uterus, and prominent 

 genital pore of the two larger specimens, agree so closely with 

 the corresponding structures of T. pisiformis that these tape- 

 worms apparently are of that species. 



17— Sci. Acad.— 2163 



