Eastern Box Turtle Parasites 87 



whether these specimens were the species described from Terrapene 

 ornata by Hill (1941) as P. terrapenis Hill, 1941. 



One turtle contained one immature specimen of the acanthocephalan 

 Macracanthorhynchus ingens (Linstow, 1879). This worm was not attached 

 to the stomach wall and was possibly a spurious parasite contracted 

 by the turtle having recently eaten an infected beetle. 



DISCUSSION 

 The life histories of most of the parasites collected in this study 

 are poorly documented, and much of the literature is either contradictory 

 or limited in scope. In addition, major disagreement exists concerning 

 the appropriate nomenclature for many species or species complexes. 

 To help clarify existing information and to place our results in perspective 

 for future studies, a summary of nomenclatural problems and life 

 history data follows. 



Platyhelminthes: Digenea 



Brachycoelium salamandrae (Froelich, 1789) — Both Harwood (1932) 

 and Byrd (1937) described a number of species of Brachycoelium 

 from reptiles and amphibians in the southeastern United States. Rankin 

 (1938) reviewed the genus and concluded that the characters used to 

 describe the various species were too variable to be of specific diagnostic 

 value. Rankin (1945) also stated that the relative size of individual 

 flukes was dependent on the number of flukes infecting a particular 

 host. The worms were quite small when large numbers were present 

 but were substantially larger when ^ 20 were present. Rankin advocated 

 that Brachycoelium daviesi Harwood, 1932; B. dorsale Byrd, 1937; B. 

 georgianium Byrd, 1937; B. hospitale Stafford, 1900; B. louisianae 

 Byrd, 1937; B. meridionalis Harwood, 1932; B. mesorchium Byrd, 

 1937; B. obesum Nicoll, 1914; B. ovale Byrd, 1937; B. storeriae 

 Harwood, 1932; and B. trituri Holl, 1928 be reduced to synonyms of 

 B. salamandrae. Cheng (1958) disagreed, recognized all of the above 

 listed species, and described a new species, Brachycoelium elongatum 

 Cheng, 1958. Since that time, two additional species have been described: 

 B. stablefordi Cheng and Chase, 1961 and B. ambystomae Couch, 

 1966. All specimens found in the box turtles in our study were 

 identified with Cheng's keys as Brachycoelium salamandrae. Here, we 

 follow Rankin in treating this species complex as a single, extremely 

 variable species whose morphological features are influenced by numbers 

 and hosts. 



Brachycoelium salamandrae has been reported from a wide range 

 of reptile and amphibian species. Rumbold (1928) reported B. salamandrae 

 as the only trematode he found in seven box turtles from North 

 Carolina, with an infection rate of 28% and an average of 0.28 worms 



