96 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 134 
Family MONILIFORMIDAE 
Moniliformis moniliformis (Bremser in Rudolphi, 1819) Travassos, 1915, 
and/or Moniliformis dubius Meyer, 1932 
Synonymy.—The nomenclature of the Moniliformis found in man 
is confusing. According to Chandler (1949), the only species found 
in man is M. dubius. Faust (1955) stated that the only species found 
in man is M. moniliformis. Both were apparently referring to the 
same organism. Meyer (1932) made Gigantorhynchus moniliformis, 
in Magalhaes (1898), and Moniliformis moniliformis Bremser, in 
Travassos (1917), synonyms of Moniliformis travassosi Meyer, 1932. 
Chandler (1941) made Moniliformis travassosi Meyer, 1932, Monili- 
fornus sp. of Chandler (1921), and Moniliformis sp. of Southwell 
(1922) synonyms of Moniliformis dubius. Hyman (1951a) stated 
that M. moniliformis is a variable form inhabiting many small mam- 
mals and that M. dubius is cosmopolitan in rats. According to Chan- 
dler (1949), the form of Moniliformis found in wild rodents in Europe 
is not identical with that found in rats in the United States and South 
America. The reader is referred to Van Cleave (1946) for a discus- 
sion of this problem. 
Disease.—The worm is a cosmopolitan parasite in the small intestine 
of rodents ; it occasionally infects man. 
Natural intermediate hosts—The following records apparently 
refer to M. dubs: 
Periplaneta americana, Brazil (Magalhaes, 1898) : Only 3 to 4 per- 
cent of the insects examined were infected; one cockroach contained 
five encapsulated larvae in an advanced state of development. Brazil 
(Travassos, 1917) : Larvae found in body cavity. Gold Coast Colony 
(Southwell, 1922) : 30 cysts of the worm were collected from two 
cockroaches. India (Pujatti, 1950): 18 percent of 78 cockroaches 
contained acanthellas. U.S.A., Texas (Burlingame and Chandler, 
1941; Moore, 1946): Naturally infected cockroaches were collected 
in the Houston Zoological Garden. These cockroaches were between 
80 and 9o percent infected (Moore, 1946). 
Periplaneta australasiae, India (Pujatti, 1950): 8 percent of 86 
cockroaches were infected. (Pujatti did not find the parasite in 152 
specimens of Blattella germanica.) 
The following records apparently pertain to M. moniliformis: 
Pertplaneta americana, Argentina (Bacigalupo, 1927, 1927a, 1928) : 
In these records, 8 percent of 38 cockroaches and 10 percent of 78 
cockroaches were infected. Brazil (Pessoa and Correa, 1929): 14 to 
2 percent of the cockroaches examined were infected. Algiers (Seurat, 
—— SS eer. rr. 
