236 ON A NEMATOID WORM FROM KILIMA-NJARO. [Mar. 3, 



5. Note on a Nematoid Worm {Gordius verrucosus) obtained 

 by Mr. H. H. Johnston on Kilima-njaro, By F. Jef- 

 frey Bell, M.A., F.Z.S. 



[KeceiTed February 3, 1885.] 



The single specimen of Gordius which was ohtained by Mr. 

 Johnston belongs to a well-known and widely-distributed species, 

 but yet presents points of interest such as are almost always absent 

 from so-called new species. 



So far as my knowledge extends (and on this particular point it is in 

 advance of that of Dr. Linstow, who, in his valuable 'Compendium der 

 Helminthologie,' does not mention the parasite now under consider- 

 ation), Gordius verrucosus is, in earlier life, parasitic on a species of the 

 genus Mantis ; and there is in the British Museum a specimen of 

 "Mantis, sp.," which, as Mr, Waterhouse has been good enough to 

 point out to me, is really M. memhranacea, accompanying a Gordius. 

 The whole of the abdomen of this Orthopteron is completely emptied 

 of its contents. A similarly excavated Mantis, the appearance of 

 which had excited Mr. Waterhouse's wonder, is to be found among 

 the insects collected by Mr. Johnston between 3000 and .tOOO feet. 



A specimen, belonging apparently to the same species, is to be 

 found half in and half out of the abdomen of Hierodula bioculata, a 

 Mantid collected on the west coast of Africa, and lately presented to 

 the Trustees by Dr. Giinther, F.R.S. 



With regard to the geographical distribution of the species, it is to 

 be noted that it is sufficiently wide to include South Africa and 

 Ceylon ; while there are in the British Museum specimens named 

 respectively by Dr. Baird, the author of the species, and by Dr. Oiley, 

 who in 1881 went carefully through the collection in the Museum ; 

 these specimens are reported as coming from Vera Paz. Guatemala 

 (presented by O. Salvin, Esq.), and the " neighbourhood of Irazu, 

 Costa Rica" (presented by Messrs. Godman and Salvin). The fact 

 that the same parasite is to be found in hosts of different species is 

 well known. The present case, in which Mantis memhranacea from 

 Ceylon, Idoleum diaholicum from Kilima-njaro, and Hierodula biocu- 

 lata from West Africa are infested by a common form, is almost exactly 

 paralleled by the case of the Tcenia described by Peters from a 

 Rhinoceros from the Mozambique, and by Murie and Garrod in 

 Rhinoceroses from India. 



As to the second point which has arisen, the presence of G, 

 verrucosus in Central America, 1 note differences in the form of the 

 integumentary papillae, which are sufficient to induce me to suggest 

 that no stress should be at present laid on this point, though they 

 are not enough, when taken in conjunction with my own want of 

 experience in the degrees of possible variations, to lead me to put 

 myself into more decided opposition to the views or determinations 

 of such workers as Dr. Baird and Dr. Orley. 



