364 



matopota italica. It is 30 by i-2/^, flagellum 20-25/4. 

 (Fig in). 



Dissect out the gut of a mosquito, e.g., C. fatigans. 

 Note with the naked eye (in an infected mosquito), the 

 distension of the gut by the flagellates. Rupture the 

 gut and make smears. Stain with Romanowsky. 



Significance of Gut Flagellates. In the case of 

 T. gambiense, we know that all traces of trypanosomes 

 disappear from the gut of the fly in ninety-six hours 

 (but it is quite possible that they still exist in some 

 unknown form). 



Similarly, in the case of T . brucei, the trypanosomes 

 disappear in fifty-five hours. On the other hand, in 

 the case of fish trypanosomes, multiplication occurs in 

 the leech, and they are infective for weeks. 



It is necessary, therefore, to bear in mind the 

 existence of these flagellates in the gut, sometimes in 

 enormous numbers, especially as the cultural form of 

 a trypanosome is of a herpetomonas type, z.^., spindle 

 shape, with anterior blepharoplast. 



Pure cultures of gut flagellates are best got on 

 blood-agar plates by a series of diluting smears. 



GENUS TRYPANOPLASMA 



Anteriorly has a long rod-like blepharoplast. 

 Close beside this are two minute basal bodies, from 

 which the flagella arise ; the anterior free flagellum is 

 attached anteriorly to one basal body, while the 

 posterior, arising from the other, is attached along 

 the whole length to the edge of the undulating mem- 

 brane, and then terminates posteriorly in a free 

 flagellum (Fig. 112). 



Half a dozen of these flagellates are already known 

 in the blood of fishes. They vary from 1 2-40^ in length. 



