of the Fishery Board for Scotland 



71 



" we had the good fortune to find two Arnphiptyches urna in its intestine, 

 and we now conclude that it is an Nostosite,"* that is, a parasite that 

 has now reached its ultimate destination, and therefore a true parasite of the 

 Chimera. 



In 1890, in Hist. Nat. des Anueles (coil, des Suites a Buffon), Vol. III., 

 2nd Part, the author, M. l'Professeur Leon Vaillant, mentions in a foot- 

 note to Gyrocotyle, Diesing (p. 539), that this "must not be confounded 

 with the Arnphiptyches, Gr. and W., the unique species of which A. urna has 

 been wrongly described under the name of Gyrocotyle arnphiptyches, W., 

 this last belonging to a group of Trematodes." But though A. urna is 

 referred to in the statement just quoted as unique, there appears to be at 

 least another species, A. rugosa, parasitic in a fish found in the South Seas. 

 In the Memoir on Flatworms and Mesozoa by F. W. Gamble, in Vol. II. of 

 the "Cambridge Natural History" (1896), the author not only refers to 

 Arnphiptyches urna and A. rugosa, but appears to regard them, not as 

 Trematodes, but as Monozootic Ce^todes belonging to a special family, the 

 Cestodaria or Monozoa. The following are that author's remarks on this 

 interesting point (p. 77) : — 



" Just as some Coelenterata {Lucernaria) may be regarded as not having 

 advanced much beyond a scyphistoma stage, so there are unsegmental 

 Cestodes {e.g., Archigetes) which have remained as a slightly altered but 

 sexual scolex, directly comparable with a Trematode, and, as all authors are 

 agreed, representing one generation only. Such monozootic forms are now 

 classed as a special family, the Cestodaria or Monozoa of which CaryophyUeus 

 mutabilis from the intestine of various Cyprinoid fish is the most abundant 

 representative, while Arnphiptyches {Gyrocotyle) urna from Chimera mons- 

 trosa of the Northern hemisphere is paralleled by A. rugosa found in 

 Callorhynchus antarcticus from the Southern seas." 



The specimens of Arnphiptyches recorded by Grube and Wagener were 

 found associated with the shells of Mactra; the specimens of Chimera from 

 the Fish Market in which the parasites dealt with here were obtained had 

 only a moderate quantity of food in their stomachs, which consisted of 

 various organisms, chiefly small Crustacea, Echinoderms and Annelids, along 

 with a few small Molluscan shells such as Anomia, Pecten, Cardium, 

 Buccinum, Fusus, Scalaria, all of them small or immature. The parasites 

 varied greatly in size — in length as well as in width. The longer specimens 

 were narrow in proportion and the wider ones shorter. The longer speci- 

 mens, such as that represented by fig. 1, measured fully 30 mm. by 10 mm. 

 in width, while that represented by fig. 3 measured 24 mm. by 15 mm. 

 The specimen represented by fig. 4 appears to be a young form. The 

 specimens have the appearance of being incomplete, or as if they were 

 segments of a larger form. They all occurred, however, as separate organisms; 

 there was no sign of any being joined to one another, though considerable 

 care was taken to ascertain if in any case that were so. 



* Ce singulier ver a ete trouve d'abord par G. Wagener dans l'intestine de la 

 Chimere de la Mediterranee ; nous n'avous pu l'etudier que sur des individus con- 

 serves dans la liqueur, que G. Wagener nous a obligeamment communiques ; sont-ils 

 de vrais parasites internes de ces poissons ? Nous en avons doute, et nous pensions 

 que ces magnifiques Trematodes etaient des parasites de quelque mollusque bivalve 

 que le poisson avait avales, c'est-a-dire, un parasite erratique , nous nous etions 

 trompe. Ayant per nous procurer depuis une Chimere adult dans la liqueur, prove- 

 nant de la cote de Norwege, nous avons eu la bonne chance de trouver deux 

 A rnphiptyches urna, adultes, dans l'intestin. Nous pouvons en conclure que c'est un 

 Nostosite. Cf. op. cit., p. 21. 



