432 PARASITES OP ANIMALS 



Besides the liver-fluke, the only marsupial trematodes at 

 present fairly described appear to be Hemistoma alatum, and 

 two species of Rhopalophorus (R. coronatus and R. horridus). 

 All of these were obtained by Natterer from the opossums of 

 tropical America. One of these flukes was described at some 

 length by Kudolphi, who called the species Distoma coronatum, 

 and gave its length as varying from two to four lines. Diesing, 

 in one of his best illustrated monographs, has shown that 

 the opossums in question are infested by two distinct species of 

 fluke, which must be generically separated from the distomes. 

 These singular Rhopalophori are furnished with a pair of armed 

 retractile proboscides (Bohriisseln), which must form powerful 

 organs of anchorage. The worms are found attached to the 

 walls of the stomach and small intestines. 



The tapeworms of marsupials are more numerous than flukes. 

 Thus, we have Rudolphi's Tcenia f estiva, eight to ten inches in 

 length, occupying the gall-bladder and hepatic duct of Macropus 

 giganteus. Dr Bancroft's collection contains two almost perfect 

 examples of a tapeworm which he procured from a small 

 streaked kangaroo (Halmaturus Derby anus). These I have 

 identified as T.f estiva. In this worm the reproductive papillae, 

 not hitherto observed, are biserially arranged. Fragments of a 

 tapeworm (T. didelphidis) are preserved in the Vienna Museum, 

 taken from the intestines of the American Didelphis murina. 

 From different species of wallaby (Halmaturus) Mr Gerard 

 Krefft has given more or less complete descriptions of two 

 tapeworms (Tcenia fimbriata, and T. Master sii), and a probable 

 Bothriocephalus (B. marginatus). I am not in a position to 

 pronounce upon the distinctness of these Australian Tanice ; 

 but I may observe that Krefft's T.fiinbriata comes very near 

 to another species which Dr Bancroft has given me. The 

 Brisbane savant obtained the worm from a koala (Phascvlarctos 

 cinereus). Provisionally I call this species Tania geophiloides, 

 in allusion to its general resemblance to a long millipede. The 

 single, perfect strobile, with the head attached, measures 

 thirteen inches in length. Prof. Leidy has furnished a de- 

 scription of another tapeworm (T. bipapillosa) from a wombat 

 (Phascolomys), and Mr Krefft has described yet another species 

 obtained from the common vulpine opossum (Phalavgista vul- 

 pina). The single example in Krefft's possession measures 

 four inches in length. He has named it Tania phalangistce. 

 Some of the American opossums (Didelphys brachyura, and D. 



