146 BRITISH PARASITIC COPEFODA. 



4. Lernaea lumpi T. Scott. 

 (Plate XLIV, fig. 4.) 



1901. Lernsea lumpi T. Scott. (113) p. 128, pi. vii, fig. 12. 



Female. — Head globular, furnished with three very 

 short, simple, spine-like horns, two of them lateral and 

 one dorsal. Mouth seen as a small papilliform promi- 

 nence on the ventral aspect. Head separated from 

 the neck by a shallow constriction which is not an 

 articulation. Neck long, moderately slender, slightly 

 flexuose, and somewhat wrinkled. G-enital segment, 

 though rather stouter than the neck, proportionally 

 less swollen than in Lernaea branchialis, neither is it 

 sigmoid as in that species but doubled round in the 

 form of a hook; a distinct constriction also present 

 between that part where the egg- strings are attached 

 and the caudal portion of the body. Clusters of egg- 

 strings small and more or less twisted, as is usual in 

 Lernsea. Antennas and mouth-appendages appearing to 

 be somewhat similar to those of other species of Levnsea. 

 Length about two inches (50 mm.). Colour dark red. 



Habitat. — Parasitic on the gill-arches of lumpsuckers, 

 Gyelopterus lumpus. Found on a lumpsucker cap- 

 tured in the salmon nets at the Bay of JSTigg near 

 Aberdeen, 29th March 1900. 



Only a single specimen of this somewhat curious parasite 

 was obtained, though dozens of lumpsuckers have been exa- 

 mined; the head and a portion of the neck measuring about 

 three-quarters of an inch penetrated the tissues of the fish. 



The structure of this species seems in some respects to 

 approach more nearly to that of Pennella than is the case with 

 the adult Lernsea branchialis, the body is recurved to a much 

 smaller extent, and the cephalic horns are greatly reduced in 

 size ; its hold on the fish might therefore be correspondingly 

 weakened, but its fixation is rendered secure by having a 

 larger proportion of the neck enclosed in the tissues of the 

 fish. 



It sometimes happens that the Lernsea dies while still 

 attached to the living fish, and in that case, though the 

 genito-abdominal part of the parasite's body disappears, the 

 fish seems to be unable to get quit of the tougher and more 



