NOTES ON NEMATODE PARASITES OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS 



TETRAMERES FISSISPINA (diESING, I860) IN PHILIPPINE CHICKENS 



By Lawrence D. Wharton 

 (Assistant Professor of Zoology, University of the Philippines) 



In October, 1917, Professor Charles S. Banks brought me a 

 number of nematode worms, which had been collected from the 

 proventriculus of a chicken at the College of Agriculture in Los 

 Baiios. On examination these worms were found to belong to 

 the genus Tetrameres Creplin, 1846. This genus contains 

 thirteen species of worms, all of which have been found in the 

 digestive tract of birds. However, only one species, Tetrameres 

 fissispina (Diesing, 1860), has been reported as a parasite of 

 chickens. This form was reported from this host in Brazil in 

 1914 by Travassos ^ and in Guam in 1915 by Ransom.- 



Further study of the specimens furnished by Professor Banks 

 and of others, which I have obtained here in Manila, has led to 

 the conclusion that the Philippine species is identical with that 

 reported by Travassos and by Ransom. 



Tetrameres fissispina (Diesing, 1860). 



Tropidocerca fissispina Diesing, 1860. 

 Acanthophorus tenuis v. Linstow, 1876. 

 Acanthophorus horridus v. Linstow, 1876. 

 Tropidocerca inflata Zuern, 1882, nee Diesing, 1860. 

 Tropisorus fissispinus Neuman, 1888. 

 Tropisurus fissispinus Railliet, 1895. 



All the species of this genus are remarkable for their great 

 sexual dimorphism, the males being long, slender white worms 

 and the females subglobular and red or brovm. 



Female. — Length, 3 to 6 millimeters; diameter, 2 to 3.5 mil- 

 limeters. Body subglobular, blood red, with slender conical 

 cephalic and caudal projections. The body is transversely 

 striated and bears four longitudinal depressions, which corre- 

 spond to the median and lateral lines. The two extremities are 



^ Travassos, Paul, Sobre as especies brazilieras do genero Tetrameres 

 Creplin, 1846, Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (1914), 6, 150-162. 



' Ransom, B. H., Proceedings of the Helminthological Society of Washing- 

 ton, Journ. Parasit. (1915), 2, 93. 



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