494 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [42] 



of some form already described, as the spines of the body are probably 

 shed in the coarse of its further development. 



The proboscis is clavate, bluntly rounded in front, increasing slightly 

 for a short distance back, and then narrowing gradually to the base, 

 thickly beset with recurved hooks, of which there are about twenty 

 series, counting from base to apex, and about fifteen visible in the long- 

 est spiral ; proboscis eversible ; neck short, unarmed ; body always 

 curved, anteriorly armed with sagittate spiues, thus forming an armed 

 collar back of the neck, the spines of which are arranged in about eight 

 transverse rows, but placed a little irregularly. A short distance back 

 of this spiny collar is a transverse row of sagittate spines, which are 

 placed on the inner (ventral) part of the curve, and extend up each 

 side nearly to the outer (dorsal) edge. Following this row are about 

 twenty other rows of similar spines, similarly placed, except that none 

 of them contains as many spines, and hence is not as long as the first 

 row. The first eight or ten rows do not differ much in length nor in 

 the number of spines ; posteriorly the rows become shorter and shorter 

 until the last, in which the spines are few and hard to distinguish. 

 The body increases in size for some distance back of the neck, attains 

 its greatest dimensions about the anterior third, and diminishes uni- 

 formly to the posterior end, which is in some slightly enlarged, ending 

 ing with a bluntly rounded point. 



These worms were all found in the body cavity of their host, coiled 

 up and lodged in the serous coat of the intestine or stomach, or in the 

 mesentery. When found they usually had the proboscis inverted, but 

 everted it, in whole or in part, when immersed in alcohol or when placed 

 under the compressor. They were surrounded by a thin investing 

 membrane, which was of the nature of a cyst, while at the same time- 

 it appeared to belong to the worm. They were uniformly coiled in a 

 curved or lu nate shape, with the rows of spines on the concave side. 

 The body is much roughened by transverse wrinkles or creases, es- 

 pecially towards the posterior end. 



The branching vascular system characteristic of this order is clearly 

 defined. If the plane in which the curved animal lies be called a dorso- 

 ventral one, then the principal vessels of the vascular system are lat- 

 eral. 



The sexual characters were already plainly distinguishable. In one 

 specimen two oval masses suspended from the base of the proboscis 

 sheath were identified as the beginning testes. These were oval, 

 granular bodies, the first 1.16 mm back of the proboscis sheath, and the 

 second 0.34 mm farther back; length of each 0.164" 11 " ; breadth 0.127 imu . 

 They lay in the ribbon-like band or tube which in all the specimens 

 depended from the base of the sheath, and which doubtless represents 

 the suspensory ligament. Behind the anterior oval body lay a cluster 

 of spherical nucleated cells. The genitalia, in this specimen, ended in a 

 campanulate expansion, at the base of which a small pointed body was 



