No. 3. — Trichonympha, and other Parasites of Termes flavipes. 
By James F. Porter! 
CONTENTS. 
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di yrsony mpl vertens™ vA, “> DON Paper Cited = ¿o Pl OY 
8. Dinenympha gracilis. . . . . 651! Explanation of Plates . . . . . 68 
NEARLY twenty years ago Dr. Joseph Leidy (77) discovered several 
new and quite distinct species of Protozoa living parasitic in the in- 
testine of Termes flavipes.” A few years later he (81) published 
an extended account of these strange creatures, accompanied by a 
large number of drawings illustrating the great variety of forms which 
they assume. Some of these parasites, to which he gave the name 
Trichonympha agilis, were so unlike any previously described Protozoa 
that their discoverer was not entirely certain where they ought to be 
classed ; at first (77) he regarded them as “probably related with the 
Turbellaria on the one hand, and by evolution with the Ciliate Infusoria 
on the other.” Later (81, p. 529), however, he was disposed to view this 
parasite as having a character intermediate between a ciliate infusorian 
and a gregarine, but (p. 436) more nearly related to the gregarines. 
Since then W. Saville Kent (35) has made some additional observa- 
tions on the structure and habits of this parasite from material sent 
to him by Dr. Leidy, and has also discovered a very similar parasite, to 
which he gave the name Trichonympha leidyi, in the White Ant of 
Tasmania, 
3osides these studies on Trichonympha, there have appeared deserip- 
tions of some other forms which seem to be closely related to this genus. 
I refer to Joenia, described by Grassi (85), and to Lydionella, found by 
Frenzel (91), both parasitic in the intestine of Termites. The paper by 
' Contributions from the Zodlogical Laboratory of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoölogy at Harvard College, under the direction of E. L. Mark, No. LXXXIV. 
2 Some of these had been previously seen by Lespes (56); but he alluded to 
them only briefly (pp. 237, 258) in his memoir. Compare Leidy (81, pp. 425-428). 
VOL. XXI. —NO. 8. 
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