TJENIASIS 185 



Finally, as a manifestation of the nervous disturbance, there are 

 convulsions; there is much prostation and emaciation, and the animal 

 dies, usually during or shortly after an epileptiform attack. 



Cestodes of Rabbits 



Tapeworm infection is said to frequently appear enzootically among 

 the wild hares of foreign countries. In domestic rabbits such infection 

 is rare. The species here described is occasionally found. It is unarmed, 

 and its life history is unknown. 



Cittotsenia denticulata (Moniezia denticulata). Tseniidse (p. 170). — 

 The head is small, with flat suckers. The neck is as broad as the head. 

 The larger segments may be 10 mm. (3/8 of an inch) in width, always 

 wider than long. The genital pores are on the posterior fourth of the 

 border of the segment. 



It may reach a length of 8 cm. (3 inches). 



There is little clinical experience with tseniasis of rabbits. In general, 

 what has been said as to such infection in other animals will apply as 

 well to them. Diagnosis can be made by finding the segments in the 

 feces, or by destroying and examining one or two suspected animals. 



Family II. Diphyllobothriid^ 



The best known representative of this family is Diphyllobothrium 

 latum {Dibothriocephalus lotus, Bothriocephalus latus). The head is 

 oblong or lanceolate, unarmed, and has two deep slit-hke depressions, 

 one dorsal, the other ventral, which serve as suckers (Fig. 109). The 

 neck is not well demarcated from the first segments which are scarcely 

 ■^dsible. The segments gradually increase in length and breadth; the 

 largest are 4-5 mm. long and may be 2 cm. wide (3/16 by 3/4 of an 

 inch). The gravid segments become much narrower as their genital 

 organs atrophy and the eggs are discharged, these being expelled in 

 greater part before the separation of the segments from the chain. In 

 sexually mature segments the rosette-shaped uterus may be seen in the 

 middle line. The genital pores are special orifices for ovulation, located 

 in the middle of the ventral surface of the segments (Fig. 101). 



The length of the entire worm may be 2-7 meters (6-22 feet). It 

 may reach a length of 20 meters (Neumann). The segments may 

 number 3,000 or more. 



The eggs are oval, operculated, and 68-70 microns long. In the 

 presence of water a ciliated embryo escapes from the egg by the lifting 

 of the operculum and swims about until it enters the body of a fresh- 

 water fish, said to be especially the pike. In the muscles of this host it 

 develops into the worm-like plerocercoid (Fig. 112, e). After the 



