ACANTHOCEPHALA 555 



ACANTHOCEPHALA 

 Family ECHINORHYNCHIDAE Sub-family Centrorhynchinae 



Corynosoma bullosum (v. Linstow, 1902) 



One small, immature specimen of this species occurred in the intestine of a crab- 

 eater seal (Lobodon carcinophagus) at Station 187 (Palmer Archipelago, between Anvers 

 Island and Graham Land), March 18, 1927. 



Larval forms, found encysted in the peritoneum of Chaenocephalus ? aceratns off 

 South Georgia (Station MS 68), March 2, 1926, and in the mesentery of a "crocodile 

 fish" (probably Parochaenichthys georgianns), also ofl^ South Georgia, April 30, 1925, 

 are referred to this species. They differ from the larvae assigned to C. hamanni in the 

 same characters as the adults of the two species — viz. in having a much longer and more 

 slender posterior portion, and in the fact that the body-spines do not extend along the 

 whole of the ventral surface. 



Corynosoma hamanni (v. Linstow, 1892) 



Numerous larval forms which are referred to this species occurred encysted on the 

 outside of the intestine of Notothenia rossii off Deception Island, South Shetlands 

 (Station 174), February and March 1927. Similar larvae also occurred, mixed with those 

 of C. bullosum, in a "crocodile fish" (probably Parachaenichthys georgianus) off South 

 Georgia, April 30, 1925. 



Bolbosoma brevicolle (Malm, 1867) 



This species was collected on at least six occasions from the intestines of blue whales 

 {Balaeuoptera musculus) at Durban and Saldanha Bay, South Africa, and at South 

 Georgia. On one occasion (at Saldanha Bay, July 9, 1926) it was found in a fin whale 

 {B. physalus), and the collector's label states that when fresh the worms in the small 

 intestine were red, while those in the large intestine were white. The presence of an 

 orange-red colour in Acanthocephala is not uncommon. The present observation 

 suggests that it may be not an inherent property of the worms themselves, but an 

 accident in some way connected with the food of the host. 



Bolbosoma turbinella (Dies., 1851) 



This species occurred on six occasions, at Durban, Saldanha Bay and South Georgia, 

 in sei whales (Balaeuoptera borealis), and it is noteworthy that it was not found in any 

 other host. The fact that it did not occur in Balaeuoptera musculus or B. physalus, 

 whereas Bolbosoma brevicolle occurred in these two species and not in B. borealis, would 

 seem to indicate the existence of some important difference between the habits of the 

 sei whale and those of the other species. 



