PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE PARASITIC 

 WORMS OF ONEIDA LAKE, NEW YORK. 



By Dr. Henry S. Pratt. 

 Professor of Biology, Haverford College, Haverford, Pa. 



CONTENTS 



1. Introduction. 



2. Nature of Aquatic Parasitic Worms. 



3. Tabulated Results. 



4. Detailed Results of the Investigation. 



Parasites of Fishes. 



Parasites of Birds, Reptiles and Frogs. 



Parasites of Mollusks. 



INTRODUCTION 



The author of this preliminary report, assisted by Mr. Frank C. 

 Baker, at that time zoological investigator at the State College of 

 Forestry and at present Curator of the Natural History Museum of 

 the University of Illinois, began on August 21, 1917, a study of the 

 parasitic worms infesting the fish and other aquatic vertebrates and 

 the mollusks of Oneida Lake, New York. This study was con- 

 ducted under the auspices of The New York State College of For- 

 estry at Syracuse and the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and 

 under the immediate direction of Dr. Charles C. Adams of the 

 College of Forestry, as a part of a general ecological and fish cul- 

 tural survey of the inland waters of the State. The general plan 

 of the work is as follows. First, as complete collections as possible 

 are to be made of the parasitic worms infesting the aquatic animals 

 in the lake ; and second, an intensive study of the parasitic worms of 

 the different species of the important fishes of the lake is to be made, 

 with a view to learning as much as possible of the life history of 

 these parasites. The present paper gives an account of the first col- 

 lections made in accordance with this plan, in the late summer of 

 191 7. The further collections being made from time to time will 

 doubtless add to the number of species of fish and other animals, 

 and to the list of parasitic forms harbored by these creatures. 



NATURE OF AQUATIC PARASITIC WORMS 



The parasitic worms that infest fishes and other more or less 

 aquatic vertebrates, as well as fresh-water mollusks, belong to four 

 general groups : the Trematodes or flukes, the Cestodes or tape- 

 worms, the Nematodes or threadworms, and the Acanthocephala or 

 spiny-headed worms. All of these worms, with the exception of a 

 few species of flukes, are internal parasites, living in the various 



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