The family Koellikeriadae. 159 



Genus Netnatohot lirlutn van Beneden 1858. 



The genus Nematohothrium establislied by van Beneden coutains 

 iip to tlie preseut oiily 3 species if \ve except tlie forms henedenii and 

 taenioides of Monticelli which have been referred to Bidijmosoon. 

 These latter worms are merely mentioned and nowhere described 

 in detail so that it is impossible to determine their exact position. 

 Stossich who has studied B. taenioides describes it as follows : body 

 very long, cylindrical, tapering toward the anterior part. The pharynx 

 is small, subglobose and provided witli a very long narrow Oeso- 

 phagus which divides into two narrow intestinal coeca. The Uterus 

 opens anteriorly at the extremity of a little prominence near the 

 cephalic end of the body and contains thousands of very small eggs 

 with thick smooth shell of a deep yellow color. It forms cysts, 

 sometimes quite voluminous, in the muscles of Orthagoriscus mola. 

 The figure shows no ventral sucker. This description seems to 

 apply rather better to a member of the genus Nematohothrium than 

 to a Bidijmosoon even though Monticelli definitely decides upon 

 the latter designation. 



The 3 species which are rather more clearly described are N. 

 filarina van Beneden, N. guernei Moniez and N. molae of Maclaeen 

 but these descriptions too leave rauch to be desired. 



Nematohothrium füarina found lodged in cysts in the thickness 

 of the skin of the branchial cavity at the Shoulder girdle in Sciaena 

 aquila is described by van Beneden as a worm 1 raetre long. It lives 

 in pairs tangled together in the cavity of the cyst which has no 

 connection with the outside. The body is long, round, soft and 

 folded with no segmentation. It is not free in the cyst but lodged 

 in a mantle which clings tightly. At one end there is an excavation 

 which is not a sucker; at the other end, which is more truncated, 

 there is also an excavation of diflferent form. There is no ventral 

 sucker. No trace of intestinal canal could be found, but it is thought 

 that it may have existed before the great development of the 

 genitalia and disappeared as in Filaria medinensis, Gordius and 

 Distomum füicolle. Generally there are two worms enlaced, recalling 

 Bistomiim füicolle, the thickest being rolled round the slender one 

 which has less numerous eggs which are not yellow like the eggs^ 

 of the larger one. There is a large tube with contractile walls 

 ending blindly and disappearing in contraction. It must be the 

 excretory canal and permits one to distingiiish the posterior end. 



11* 



