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Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



normal hosts which was devoured by the snake for food. It is 

 extremely doubtful if the parasites could have become permanently 

 established in this strange environment. Such unusual occurrences 

 are occasionally met with in general collecting, and are likely to lead 

 to confusion if not correctly interpreted. The accidental appearance 

 of an organism in the digestive tract of a given animal does not 

 necessarily demonstrate that it has become established there as a 

 parasite. The only true criterion for the determination of what 

 constitutes a normal definitive host is the ability of the parasite to 

 perfect its sexual development. 



Table III. 

 Analysis of the occurrence of P. hulbocolli in Oneida Lake hosts 



HOST SPECIES 



Number 

 infested 



with 

 Acantho- 

 cephala 



Vial nos. 



Number 

 infested 

 with P. 

 hulbocolli 



Specimens 



. ^" 



individual 



hosts 



Ameiurus nebulostis* 



Abramis crysoleucas. 

 Pomoxis sparoides . . . 

 Matrix sipedon 



20, 27 

 31 

 32 

 136 



* Determination doubtful, as careful distinction was not always made between A. naialis and 

 A. nebulosus. 



One species of fish is added to the hosts previous!}' recorded for 

 P. bulbocolli in the record of its occurrence in the intestine of the 

 golden shiner (Abramis crysoleucas). 



Nothing is known regarding the development of P. bulbocolli. In 

 1872 R. Leuckart described the larva of a European representative of 

 this genus from the body of the amphipod Gauimarus pulex. Since 

 that time several fishes have been reported as intermediate hosts of 

 the European species P. lacvis (= E. proteus). 



CONCLUSIONS 



But three species of Acanthocephala have been encountered in the 

 fishes of Oneida Lake. All of these are of broad distribution in fresh- 

 water habitats in North America. It is noteworthy that no species 

 distinctive for the locality were discovered. This stands in rather 

 sharp contrast with the conditions encountered in two other fresh- 

 water habitats studied intensively by me, in each of which species of 

 apparently restricted distribution were found. From the fishes of 

 Douglas Lake, Michigan (Van Cleave '19a), two of the four 

 species of Acanthocephala encountered were new, and collections 

 from the surrounding states seem to indicate that each of these is 

 rather sharply limited in its distribution. Similarly, from the fishes 

 of the Illinois River (Van Cleave, '19) two species of Acanthocephala 

 distinctively local in distribution were taken. In spite of the fact 

 that Gracilisentis gracilisentis and Tanaorhamphus longirostris were 



