Mr. H. A. Baylis on Diciocoeliiiin lanceatmn. Ill 



c^. Furrow-spill el ets 6 ; actiiial interme- 

 diate spinelets utmally 3 (2 to 4) ; 

 prominent abantiual platrs nuiueious 

 (more than 30 and as luiin}^ as 50 to 

 each tifth of body) and with not more 

 than 15 spinelets to a plate, frequently 



10 or less Asterina coronctta cvis- 



tutti (Fisher) *. (Caroline Islands.) 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE .XIII. 

 Type of Asterina coronata cristata (Fisher). 



VI. — Is Dicrocoelium laiiceatnm a Parasite of the Cat? 

 A Note OH a luio Variety. By \\. A. BayLIS, B.A. 



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



[Plate XIV.] 



References have occasionally been made in lielminthological 

 literature t f<^ ^^e occurrence of ^^ Distomum lanceolatum " X 

 in the cat. These cases have, however, in recent years been 

 generally discredited, and it lias been suspected that the 

 parasites recorded b(4ongfd to one or other o£ the species of 

 Opistliorchisov Clonorchis (0. f el ineus and C. si7iensis) known 

 to ofciir in cats, these forms being more or less similar to 

 Dicrorcelium la»ceatiim in size and superficial appearance, 

 though differing widely from it in their internal structure. 



The typical D.lanc<atum is a well-known parasite of sheep 

 and cattle, and of variou^other herbivorous mammals; it is 

 also an occasional, and probably accidental, parasite of man, 

 having been met with some six times. Its occurrence in a 

 carnivore, however, is a point with regard to which some 

 scepticism is not unnatural. When, therefore, I received 

 some time ago some Trematodes taken from the liver of a 

 cat, I was greatly interested to find that they belonged un- 

 doubtedly to the genus Dicrocoelium, and differed from the 

 typical D. lanceatiim only in certain very small anatomical 



* This form is probably distributed over western Oceania. It seems 

 to be readily separable from the Japanese form, which has been classed 

 as true coronata, although it probably is not. 



t See, e.g., Leuckart, 'Lie Parasiten des Menschen,' 1., Abth. 2, 

 p. 360; von Linstow, ' Compendium der Ilelminthologie,' p. 30. 



X Synonymy: Fasciola lanceolata Rudolphi. 1803; Distomnvi lan- 

 ceolafian Mehlis, 1825; Uicrocosliinn lanceolatu7n Lujardin, 1845; 

 Dicrocoelium lanceatiim Stiles >fc Tlassall, 1897. 



