1907.] NATURAL SCIKNT'KS OF PHILADELPHIA. 273 



BERTRAMIA BUFONIS. A NEW SPOROZOAN PARASITE OF BUFO 

 LENTIGINOSUS. 



BY HELEN DEAN KING. 



In a paper dealing with the stnictm-e and development of "Bidder's 

 organ," a rounded body found at the anterior end of each testis in 

 various species of Bufo, Knappe^ states that occasionally spermatozoa 

 are found in the cells of this organ which is undoubtedly a rudimentary 

 ovary; he adds, furthermore, that these spermatozoa have probably 

 JDeen formed from small follicle cells which have entered the cytoplasm 

 of the undeveloped ova. 



In the course of investigations which I have been making this past 

 winter upon the development of the germ-cells and the structure of 

 Bidder's organ in the common American toad, Bufo lentiginosus , 1 have 

 found one individual in which the cells of Bidder's organ contain bodies, 

 unquestionably parasites, which are very similar to those figured by 

 Knappe as spermatozoa. It seems probable, therefore, that in the 

 material studied by Knappe the "spermatozoa" are stages in the life 

 cycle of some species of Sporozoa; for in the light of our present knowl- 

 edge regarding the origin and development of germ-cells it is incon- 

 ceivable that functional spermatozoa could be formed in or from the 

 cytoplasm of rudimentary ova that are destined to undergo degenera- 

 tion. "WTiether the species of parasite found in the American toad is 

 the same as that infecting the European form I have not been able to 

 determine, as details of structure cannot be made out from the figures 

 given by Knappe. 



The individual infected by the parasite was a young male which was 

 killed on July 16, 1905, at Owego, X. Y. Nothing unusual or abnormal 

 about the toad attracted my attention at the time that the animal was 

 killed; and, as material was being collected for a study of the genital 

 organs, only the testes, Bidder's organ, and a portion of the kidneys 

 were preserved. The material was fixed in Flemming's solution and 

 stained with iron-hsematoxylin followed by orange G. 



As so few of the organs of the body were preserved, it is impossible 

 to state the extent of the infection. The parasite is found only in the 

 ova of Bidder's organ, and not in the testes or in the renal tubules, 



' Knappe, E., Das Bidder'sche Organ, Morph. Jahrb., Bd. XI, 1886. 



