UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



IN 



ZOOLOGY 



Vol. 16, No. 7, pp. 89-94, plate 12 December 11, 1915 



ON A NEW TRICHOMONAD FLAGELLATE, 



TBICHOMITUS PARVUS, FROM THE 



INTESTINE OF AMPHIBIANS 



BY 



OLIVE SWEZY 



In the course of a series of investigations of the parasitic Protozoa 

 found in amphibians a hitherto undeseribed form has been met with 

 which has undoubted trichomonad affinities. Since, however, it lacks 

 two of the most striking features of that group, the axostyle and 

 eytostome. it must be placed in a separate genus. The name Tricho- 

 mitus parvus is proposed for this new genus and species. 



It has been found in abundance in Batracoseps attenuatus Eschs. 

 and more rarely in Diemydylus torosus Eschs., from near Berkeley, 

 California, and in Rana pipiens Shreber from Illinois. The place of 

 occurrence of this parasitic flagellate was the same in all these forms, 

 that is. the upper part of the large intestine. 



Morphology 



Triclioviittis parvus is a small spheroidal flagellate, almost elliptical, 

 sometimes nearly circular in outline, varying from 5 to lOp. in length 

 and from 4 to S/x in width. The living animal presents the appearance 

 of a minute ball and moves with a rapid rotating motion. 



The comparatively large nucleus is situated at the anterior end. 

 immediately behind the blepharoplast and touching it (pi. 12. fig. 1). 

 It is globular in shape and in staining with iron haematoxylin always, 

 or nearly always, shows a darkly staining border, the nuclear mem- 

 brane. Part of the chromatin is sometimes massed around the per- 

 iphery in blocks, usually about five in number, with a central karyo- 

 .some (pi. 12, fig. 11). In many other eases nearly all of the chromatin 

 is massed in a single central karyosome (pi. 12, fig. 2). 



