PEARSE FISHES OF LAKE VALENCIA, VENEZUELA 29 



The general plan of structure resembles that of the genus 

 Pneumatopliilus Odhner but the spines about the mouth are 

 different. Type species Parspina bagre. 



Parspina bagre, new species 



Length of body, .63 mm.; width, .37 mm.; widest a little 

 behind middle. Cuticula without spines. Oral sucker, deep; 

 length, nearly one-fifth that of body; surrounded by twenty 

 symmetrically arranged blunt, straight hooks of equal size. 

 Prepharynx short and slender. Pharynx globular; nearly half 

 as long as oral sucker. Intestinal rami branching directly from 

 pharynx; smooth; extending to the posterior seventh of the 

 body. Diameter of acetabulum a little less than that of oral 

 sucker. 



The genital field, without the vitellaria, occupies the 

 posterior half of the body. The two testes lie side by side, 

 the left slightly anterior to the right, about one-third of the 

 body length from the posterior end. They are ovate, slightly 

 lobate, and the left is somewhat smaller than the right. The 

 ovary is spherical. It lies a little posterior to the acetabulum 

 and slightly toward the right of the median line. Its diameter 

 is one-fourteenth the length of the body. Cirrus pouch almost 

 as wide as the acetabulum, from which it extends posteriorly 

 and to the left. Vitellaria grouped around the intestinal rami, 

 in the second fourth of the body, extending from the uterus to 

 the pharynx. Uterus, slender, coiled in posterior half of the 

 body, containing many eggs. Size of eggs, .016 by .008 mm. 

 Excretory system Y-shaped, without large terminal bladder. 



Host: bagre (catfish), Pimelodella metae Eigenmann, in 

 intestine. 



Type: Cat. No. 7575 (Helminthological Collection, U. S. 

 National Museum). Collected at the mouth of the Rio Bue, 

 near Maracay, Lake Valencia, Venezuela, July 29, 1918. Two 

 specimens were found in a single catfish. 



Cysts which contain a larva, apparently of this species, 

 were often found in the fins of small fishes. Figure 5 (Cat. 

 No. 7577; Helm. Coll. U. S. N. M.) shows a cyst from the 

 pectoral fin of a mataguaro, Crenicichla geayi Pellegrin, collected 

 by the Isla del Euro, July 9, 1918. The wall of this cyst is 

 thin and its entire length is .22 mm. There is some space 





