ACANTHOCEPHALA FROM THE FISHES OF 

 ONEIDA LAKE, NEW YORK* 



By Dr. Harley J. Van Cleave 

 Department of Zoology, University of Illinois 



CONTENTS 



1. Introduction. 



2. Habits of Acanthocephala. 



3. The Life Cycle. 



4. Factors in Distribution. 



5. Discussion of Species. 



6. Conclusions. 



7. References to Literature. 



INTRODUCTION 



Through the courtesy of Dr. Charles C. Adams, the writer has 

 been granted the opportunity of examining a collection of Acantho- 

 cephala from Oneida Lake, New York. The specimens were col- 

 lected by Mr. Frank C. Baker and Dr. Henry S. Pratt, between 

 August 23 and September 15, 1917, in the course of investigations 

 of the parasitic worms of Oneida Lake conducted under the direc- 

 tion of The New York State College of Forestry, with the 

 cooperation of the United States Bureau of Fisheries. While only 

 three species of Acanthocephala were encountered during the inves- 

 tigation, the meagerness of biological data concerning these forms 

 makes it appear desirable to present the results in this paper. 



The acanthocephalan fauna has been intensively studied for but 

 few localities in North America. Linton made noteworthy contri- 

 butions ('89, '91, '01, '05) to the knowledge concerning the marine 

 hosts in the vicinity of Woods Hole, Mass., and of Beaufort, N. C. 

 In addition he published the first results ('93) of the intensive study 

 of these parasites from a fresh-water habitat for this continent in 

 his work on the " Fish Entozoa from Yellowstone National Park." 

 More recently the present writer has published the results of exten- 

 sive investigations upon the occurrence of Acanthocephala in hosts 

 from the Illinois River (Van Cleave, '19) and from Douglas Lake, 

 Michigan ('19a). Most of the remaining records of Acanthoce- 

 phala on this continent are incidental to studies in taxonomy and 

 morphology, and therefore give only fragmentary bits of evidence 

 of the biological aspects and the distribution of the various species. 



Because of the intricacy of the relationship existing between 



* Contribution from the Roosevelt Wild Life Forest Experiment Station ;; 

 and the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Illinois, No. 214. 



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