DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW HAEMOPROTOZOA FROM BIRDS IN N.S.W. 81 



The type slide lias been presented to the Australian 

 Museum, Sydney, and co-types are being retained by the 

 Bureau. 



Halteridium Philemon, sp. iiov., a blood parasite of 

 Philemon comiculatiis, (Fam. Meliphagidse). 



(Diagram I, figs. 16 - 25,) 



The bird containing these parasites was shot at the 

 Experimental Station of the Bureau on Milson Island, 

 Hawkesbury River, in April 1909. In the early stages, the 

 parasites appeared as small elongated bodies lying in the 

 cytoplasm of the red cell, usually more or less lateral to 

 the nucleus, but not infrequently towards one end of the 

 host ceil and even beyond the host nucleus. Their outline 

 was sometimes indistinct and irregular, in others definitely 

 circumscribed and roundish or oval. Many had a clear 

 centre with a distinctly blue-stained surrounding ring or 

 witli the ends more deeply stained than the body. In forms 

 much less in length than the host nucleus, minute grains 

 of melanin could be detected. In a young parasite about 

 the size of the host nucleus, they occurred as a row of 

 fine granules along the side of the parasite next to the 

 nucleus. 



As the parasites became larger they always assumed a 

 position lateral to the host nucleus and extended beyond 

 this and curled round its ends in such a way that, in the 

 largest forms, the mesial sides of the ends were flush with 

 the distal side of the nucleus, the parasite then occupying 

 the whole of one side of the red cell and most of the space 

 between the ends of the nucleus and the extremities of the 

 red cell (Diagram I, figs. 23 and 25). In one case, quite two- 

 thirds of the available space in the host cell were thus 

 occupied (Diagram I, fig. 18), and it appeared as if the nucleus 

 had been slightly pushed laterally, though this may have 

 been a fault in fixation. In the large forms, the melanin 



F— July 7, 1909. 



