THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[EIGHTH SERIES.] 

 No. 92. AUGUST 1915. 



XIII. — A Trematode from Protopterus. 

 By H. A. Baylis, B.A. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



Through the kindness of Mr. G. A. K. Marshall, of the 

 Imperial Bureau of Entomology, an opportunity has recently 

 been afforded me of studying a very interesting little Trema- 

 tode parasite from the intestines of an African mud-fish 

 (Protopterus cethiopicus) . A considerable number of specimens 

 of the worm were obtained by Dr. G. D. H. Carpenter at 

 Lake Victoria, Uganda. 



The species, which I believe to be new to science, possesses 

 not only a borrowed interest on account of the much-discussed 

 position of its host in the animal kingdom, and the fact that 

 its parasites have not (so far as I am aware) hitherto been 

 explored, but also considerable intrinsic interest on account of 

 certain structural peculiarities and its probable systematic 

 relationships. 



It is much to be regretted that the material was imperfectly 

 fixed and rather macerated, rendering the cutting of satis- 

 factory sections difficult, so that some of the details of the 

 anatomy must remain for the present doubtful. The main 

 features, however, have not been difficult to make out, and in 

 collecting the data for the following description I have relied 

 as far as possible upon specimens either temporarily cleared 

 and mounted in creosote or stained and mounted whole in 

 Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 8. Vol. xvi. 7 



