ARTICLE V. 
Tue Anatomy or AMPHIPTYCHES URNA (GRUBE AND WacGENER), By W. Batpwin 
Spencer, M.A., Proressor or Bionocy iy tHe University or MeELpourne. 
(With plates 11, 12, and 18.) 
(Read Thursday, July 11th, 1889.) 
This interesting parasite was first described and figured by Dr. Wagener.* It 
was obtained by him from the alimentary canal of Chimera monstrosa. Out of 
seventeen specimens which he examined, no fewer than fifteen contained the 
parasite, which on one occasion was found in the gill cavity, though then the fish 
in which it was parasitic had been some twelve hours out of the water. 
The Chimera of the Northern Hemisphere is represented by the very closely 
allied Callorhynchus antarcticus in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere. The 
specimens obtained by myself—three in number—were taken from the mouth of 
a fine example of the latter fish sent to me by Mr. J. Bracebridge Wilson, and their 
presence in such a position was doubtless associated with the fact that the fish 
had been dead some twenty-four hours, though the parasites were still living, and 
evidently trying to find their way out of the dead body. The fish contained no more 
than these three specimens. 
((1.) External Anatomy.—The living worm which, unfortunately, I was unable 
to study in this condition, was of a creamy white colour, with the sides of the body 
and one end beautifully crenate. This end is called by Wagener the posterior ; 
in my opinion, what evidence there is available upon this point tends to show that 
this is the anterior rather than the posterior end, and accordingly it will be 
so described in the following pages. At the end called the anterior by Wagener 
the crenations are absent, and the margin is smooth, and tapers off to a blunt point 
(Pl. 11, Figs. 1 and 4). The end is formed by a muscular sucker, the opening into 
which shows as a slight round aperture i the living or dead worm, resembling thus 
the somewhat similar sucker at the anterior extremity of the Trematode worm. 
It must, however, be borne in mind that in Amphiptyches this sucker has no 
relationship to a digestive tract, nor even, so far as can be seen, to any rudiment 
of one. Wagener regards the two suckers as homologous. I cannot see that there is 
any sufficient evidence of this homology; the sucker has, as stated above, no 
relationship to an alimentary system, nor has it the relationship to the nervous 
*Uber einen neuen in der Chimera monstrosa gefundenen eingeweide-wurm, Amphiptyches urna. Arch. f. A 
Phys. 1852; also Arch. f. Nat. 24. 1, 1858. : Ata ca 
