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XXVII. On some newfoi^ma o/'Entozoa. By T. Spencee Cobbold, Esq., M.D., F.L.S. 



Read January 20th, 1859. 



By permission of the authorities of the Zoological Society, I have enjoyed the opportunity 

 of examining a large proportion of such animals as have died at the Society's Gardens, 

 Regent's Park, dm-ing the spring and mnter months of last season. 



The materials thus afforded for a search after JEntozoa consisted of six species of Reptiles, 

 thirty-one of Birds, and the same number of Mammals. With three duplicate exceptions 

 in the case of birds, and one in mammals, only a single example of each species came 

 imder notice, thus giving a total of seventy-two animals subjected to dissection. Of these, 

 but three reptiles, nine birds, and ten mammals were found infested, — a result of con- 

 siderable interest to the Zoological Society, as it proves these animals to enjoy gi-eater 

 ft-eedom from internal parasites in their condition of domesticity than in the wild state. 

 This indeed is precisely what we should expect, as it is Avell known that the larvaj oi Entozoa 

 occur only in a limited number of hosts ; and it is equally evident, in the case of Trematoda 

 for example, that the miinfested foreign animals can have had no opportunity of devour- 

 ing the various forms of moUuscan hosts which under ordinary circiunstances supply the 

 cercarice destined to become adult flukes in their viscera. 



1. DiSTOMA COMP ACTUM (mihi). Body smooth, ovate, oblong, not compressed ; oral sucker 

 terminal, orbicular ; ventral sucker subcentral, aperture triangular ; reproductive 

 pore immediately below, a little to the left. Length ^— j in. ; breadth \-\ in. 

 (PI. LXIII. figs. 1, 2, 3.) 



Remarks. — On the 19th of February I removed five specimens of this trematode from 

 pustidar cavities in the left lung of an Indian Ichneumon ( Viverra mungos, L.). All con- 

 jecture as to the source of its larvae must be useless ; but the adult form is weU marked, 

 and easily recognized by the compact condition and arrangement of tlie internal organs. It 

 is provided with a short oesophageal bulb, giving off two simple, tortuous and xmusually 

 broad digestive canals. The twisting is so marked and regular as to approach the pcctdiar 

 zigzag condition of Campula — a genus which I have recently established (Linn. Trans, 

 vol. xxii. part 3. p. 168). The vitelline caeca almost cntu-ely cover the lateral and dorsal 

 surfaces, and are connected in the middle line by two primary transverse branches ; these 

 again unite to form a trunk which opens into the base of the short and folded uterine 

 tube. The testes lie directly below. 



The nearest resemblance to this species is a fluke discovered by Natterer at Matogrosso, 

 in cavities of the lungs of the American Otter. Under the title oi Distomitm rude, Diesing 

 has described and figm-ed it in his ' Ncunzehn Ai-ten von Trematoden : Wien, 18oG.' 



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