Four species of Microcotyle. 241 



tliey run to connect witli the oviduct. The condition of tlie specimen 

 does not permit one to make out a vag-ina nor any other details of 

 the arrangement of the female genitalia except that there is an 

 eg-g- in the anterior part of the uterus which has a somewhat pe- 

 culiar form. It is elliptical with a very long and delicate anterior 

 fllament which becomes coiled in a dense mass just near the outlet 

 of the Uterus. Where the filament joins the body of the egg, there 

 is a transverse partition. The hinder end of the egg as it lies 

 has only a short blunt pointed Prolongation quite unlike the 

 anchor shaped rod seen in M. macroura. The egg measures 

 0,15 X 0,09 mm. 



The Uterus opens into the somewhat heart shaped ventral 

 genital pore which is surrounded by a condensation of the tissue 

 which is thickly studded with delicate Y shaped chitinous spicules 

 all of which point away from the opening. There are about ten 

 rows of these minute spicules as shown in the drawing and their 

 arrangement seems to difter from that in any other species. 



The lobules of the festes which lie behind the ovary number 

 about thirty-two. They are rather small and indistinct and stain 

 very palely. The ejaculatory apparatus must be very feebly de- 

 veloped for it is not visible at all in this specimen nor is any seminal 

 vesicle to be seen. 



The suckers (Fig:. H) are all elevated on muscular stalks along- 

 the edg-e of the foot. There are none of the tong like structures 

 seen in M. pijragrapJiorus and the short rounded suckers seem to be 

 rather poorly supplied with muscle. Their chitinous skeleton is 

 rather simple consisting- of a central curved rod forked at its ex- 

 tremities, and giving- oif from the short end a rod which forms the 

 median support of the opposite muscular wall. It forms the point 

 of origin also of the proximal portiou of one of the pairs of marginal 

 bands. The other of the marginal bands appears to join them loosely 

 at the angle. One gets the Impression that all of these bands 

 are merely supporting in character and are embedded in muscle but 

 it appears that the terminal portions may so bend as to protrude 

 from the muscle, for when a sucker is seen edgewise, it gives the 

 appearance of being armed with teeth, Thus, although the ele- 

 ments of the skeleton are more closely bound together at the base 

 of the sucker than in Microcotijle pyragrapliorus (from Pompano) the 

 loose pieces seen at the margin of one half in that form are not 

 represented here at all. 



17* 



