298 MR. H. A. BAYLTS AND rvr.-COL, CLAYTON LANE ON 



distinguish it from Gnathostoma spinigerum. It does not seem 

 reasonal)]e to consider the name otherwise than as a synonym ^ 

 pending i-e-examination of the original mateiinl, 



Gnaihostoma •paronai Porta (19U8, p. 8) is a name based on a 

 sino-le badly preserved female so opacjue that no internal striictuie 

 was made out. Its mengre description is in every wny applicable 

 to Gnathostoma spinigerum. It was found free in the intestine of 

 Rattus \_Mus'] rajah. Its unusual habitat and poor condition 

 suggest that it was in reality a moribund parasite of some animal 

 eaten by the rat. 



Schneider (1866, p 98) describe<l from the gastric wall of 

 Paradoxurus j^hilij^pmensis a parasite, Filaria radvla, with the 

 general external a,pj)earance of Gnathostoma spinigernvn. He also 

 notes pa.rticularly that the egg-shell was finely stippled and 

 thickened at one pole, but detected only three pairs of caudal 

 papillae in the male. He refused to identify his specimens 

 with Gnathostoma spinigeriwi, partly on account of their different 

 geooraphical distribution and partly because the tail-papillae, 

 as he believed them to be situated, \v.\d an arrangement which 

 he associated with the genus Filaria. These reasons for separating- 

 it from G. spinigerum cannot be accepted as cogent, nor are there 

 any cogent ones to be found in the description. 



Specific Diagnosis. 



Gnathostoma spinigerum Owen, 1836. 



Gnathostoma : eight to eleven rows of hooks on the head-bulb ; 

 posteriorly-directed spines cover the anterior half or two-thirds 

 of the l)ody, the anterior being comb-like, with four subequal 

 points, while the three-pointed spines have typically tlie middle 

 point the longest; in the male, small spines with the points directed 

 away from the cloacal opening cover most.of the ventral aspect of 

 the posterior 0"8 mm. of the body ; right spicule three or four 

 times as long as the left : tail of the female, in ventral view, 

 uniforml}^ rounded, with very massive papillfe. 



For list of hosts, see p, 304. 



2. Gnathostoma HisPiDUM* Fedchenko, 1872. 



Gnathostoma Mspidum Fedchenko (1872, p. 106; pi. xv.). 

 Cheiracanthus hisjmlus v. Linstow (1893, p. 201 ; pi. vii. 



figs. 1-16). 

 Gheiranthus Ms]mhis v. Linstow (1893, p. 202) [misprint]. 



The description which follows is based partly on a translation 

 which we have privately obtained of the essential parts of 

 Fedchenko's Russian paper t, in which he describes material from 



* For specific diagnosis, see p. 300. 



t The principal contents of the paper are rendered more accessible through its 

 Latin summary, and through an abstract of it in German by Leucliart (1873). 



