460 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [8] 



Family TETRABOTHRIID^. 



Echeneibothrium Van Beiiedeu. 

 Echeneibothrium variabile Van Beneden. 



[Plate I, Figs. 9-13.] 



Echeneibothrium variabile Van Beneden, Mem. Acad. Belgique, xxv, 117, tab. 



iii, 1-4,6-15. G. R. Wagener, Nov. Act. Nat. Cur., xxiv, Suppl.,85, tab. 



xxii, 280-282. Van Beneden, Mem. Vers Intest., 122 and 366, tab. xv, 



6-8. Diesing, Revis. der Cepb. Ab. Par., 267. Olsson, Lunds Univers 



Arssk., torn, iii, 38, 40, tab. i, 15, 16. 

 Tetrabofhrium {Echeneibothrium.) variabile Diesing, in Sitzungsb., xiii, 1854, 



581. 

 Larval state, Van Beneden, Mem. Acad. Belgique, xxv, tab. iii, 5. Diesing, 



Sitzungsb. der kais. Akad., xiii, 1854, 562. G. R. Wagener, I. c, 85, tab. 



xxii, 27'J. Van Beneden, Mem. Vers Intest., 122, tab. xv, 5. 

 Bothriocephalus sphcerocephalus? Deslongcbamps, Encycl. M6tb., ii, 150. 

 Echeneibothrium sphcerocephalum Diesing, Revis. der Cepb. Par., 267. 



The characters given for this species by Diesing, following Van 

 Beneden, are: 



Botbria four, pedicellate and highly versatile, at times linear or oval, 

 at others cochleariform or calyciform, with a few transverse costte, and 

 divided into several loculi by a longitudinal partition. Muscular pro- 

 boscis (myzorhynchus) large, subglobose, retractile, with a circular aper- 

 ture (os) in the apes. Neck long. Anterior segments of body broader 

 than long, median quadrate, ultimate oval. Genital apertures mar- 

 ginal, alternate. Penis armed with spines, scarcely bristly at base, 

 Length as much as 100 lum . 



In the latter part of August, 1884, 1 obtained several specimens of 

 Eeheneibothria from the spiral valve of the common Skate (Raia erinacea) 

 which I have for the present referred to E. variabileYan Beneden. Some 

 of the specimens possess characters which are given by Diesing as be- 

 longing to E. spliecrocephalum Dies. (Bevis. der. Ceph. Par., 2G7). It is 

 probable, however, that these two species are identical, as indicated 

 by Diesing : " Species lrnec (E. variabile) cum pnecedente (E. spluvroceph- 

 alum) fortasse identica." 



A few sketches and measurements were made of the specimens while 

 they were still alive, but a pressure of other duties prevented a careful 

 study of them then. When I found time to study them carefully they 

 had lain for some time in alcohol and many of the segments had sep- 

 arated. There are two distinct types of head, one represented in Fig. 

 9, made from the living specimen; the other represented in Fig. 13, 

 made from an alcoholic specimen. Other alcoholic specimens are iden- 

 tical in form with that shown in Fig. 9. In the first mentioned the 

 bothria are somewhat oval; pedicels moderately extended; the border 

 of the sucking disks thickened, marked with radiating lines, and gath- 

 ered or puckered into a few large folds. The proboscis is globose, re- 



