732 Henry B. Ward, 



a terminal sucker of a Compound laminated type, analagous in struc- 

 ture to the folded suckers on the scolex of certain cestodes. 



This organ has been described by some authors as a i'imnel 

 with more or less folded walls and by others as a crowded series of 

 fine folds in the form of a rosette. Some have sought to make this 

 a distinction betvveen different species. This certainly is not true 

 in an absolute sense and even in the relative fashion in which this 

 feature is employed by Watson I am skeptical as to its validity. 

 In the Alaska material I obtained myself and preserved by the 

 same methods under approximately uniform conditions there is con- 

 siderable Variation in the number, fineness, and complexity of the 

 rosette folds (cf. Figs. 1 to 4 and 10). In the specimens received 

 from Professor Parker the differences are even greater. Some of 

 the specimens show the highly complicated folds said by Watson 

 to be characteristic of G. fhnbriata and others show the simpler 

 form illustrated by Wagener, Lönnberg, and others. Indeed one 

 of these specimens has a longer, very simple and truly funnel-like 

 organ in the place of the usual rosette. One is forced to believe 

 that two closely related species occur in the same host at the same 

 place and time, or to say that the organ is in itself variable with 

 the contraction or extension of the worin. Watson has adopted the 

 first alternative ; all the facts which I have observed favor the latter. 

 The early disintegration of the tissue in the rosette folds, and also 

 in the lateral ruifles, as noted by Watson, certainly does modify 

 greatly the appearance and general form of the organ and thus 

 contributes to the confusion. In one of my specimens the funnel 

 form was very pronounced but the folds were evidently macerated 

 and I could find no other reason than the form of this posterior 

 organ for regarding this individual as a different species from the 

 others I had in the same lot of specimens. The matter needs further 

 evidence from observations made on living material under favorable 

 circumstances. In this connection reference should be made to the 

 observations of Lönnberg on the living worm (1891, p 17). He writes: 

 •Wenn der Amphiptyches sich lebhafter bewegen will, verlängert ei- 

 sernen Körper; die Querrunzeln an der Mitte des Körpers glätten 

 sich aus, die dichten seitlichen Krausen wandeln sich dann zuerst 

 in weniger zahlreiche Falten um und diese gehen darauf in einige 

 wenige grosse Wellen über, die bald auch verschwinden und die 

 Seitenränder glatt erscheinen lassen. Der Körper ist nun im Ligula- 

 stadium also platt und lanzettenförmig. Aber gleichzeitig hiermit 



