Kntozoa of Driliah Marine FlsliM, 19 



Ilipp-tgh^ssua vuli/(iris ami Pliuronecle.t iimandit in Part I.* 

 It was alsn met with in Ammodytea tubi'anus. To these have 

 to be added Cnllionymna lyra, Ostnerus eperlmuH, and Clupea 

 aprattua. Witli tht^ whitinj;; and ^^loy gurnard, record iil by 

 Miss Lebour, and Jiffone vulgnris by Johnstone f, there is 

 now a total of nine British hosts tor the species, but to that 

 nuinbor I sjiall have* shortly another five to add. It is thus 

 a widely distrilmted species and does not ap[)ear to have a 

 special alUnity for any particular group of fishes. The most 

 remarkable feature about this parasite is that, according to 

 my experience, very rarely docs more than one specimen 

 occur in any host at one time. This does not accord with 

 Miss Lebour's experience, but I have been struck with the 

 curious circumstance on numerous occasions. Practically the 

 only host in which I ever obtained more than a couple of 

 specimens was the whitinj: in the Firth of Clyde. This is 

 one of the hosts in which Miss Lebour found the parasite, so 

 that it may be specially liable to infection. 



Contrary to Miss Lebour, I find that t!ie species has a 

 distinctly red c<ilour, which renders it easy to be picked out 

 from the intestinal contents. The chariicters of the species 

 are suflSciently well known to obviate the necessity for 

 redescription. One feature, however, must be mentioned, 

 which has apparently escaped notice by previous observers, 

 and that is the peculiar character of the contents of the 

 excretory vesicle. Though not aware of it at the time, I first 

 remarked on this in the case of my specimen from Animodytea 

 tobianiia. Two concentrically ringed bodies are there referred 

 to, but as the specimen was unfortunately destroyed no 

 further investigation of their nature was possible. Since 

 then I have seen similar bodies several times in living 

 specimens of Lecithaster gibhosiis and usually in much greater 

 numbers. They occur in all sizes from tiny specks to 

 globules half as large as the testes, and the larger ones almost 

 invariably appear as if they contained smaller concentrically 

 arranged globules within them. For this appearance there 

 seems no obvious explanation, but there can be little doubt 

 that the bodies are really globules of excretory matter. At 

 any rate, they are contained witiiinthe main excretory vessels 

 and arc evidently homologous with the much smaller and 

 more uniform globules commonly met with in the excretory 

 vesicle of many other Tremat ides. They were certainly not 

 present in every specimen, and they always disappear on 



• For drawing my attention to the identity of this species I a:n 

 indebted to Dr. Udhner, of Upsala. 



t TranH. Hiol. Soc. Liverpool, xxi. (1P07) pp. 18.')-6, fig. 16 (Diftommn 



.,.,Jl. ..,„,„,„). 



