EEPOET ON THE ENTOZOA. 
3 
The opportunity of studying this parasite must indeed be a rare one, since the next 
naturalist who investigated and described “Ascaris simplex ” was Dujardin. 1 He described 
the spicules as unequal, measuring 15 and 27 mm. in length in a specimen 79 mm. long ; 
the ventral surface bore eight to ten papillae ; the female was 100 mm. in length ; the ova 
measured 0'041-0'043 mm. ; the vulva was situated far forward, so that the anterior and 
posterior regions exhibited a proportion of 5 to 12 or 2 to 5. The specimens were 
found in a Dolphin captured near the Maldives. The enormous length and marked 
inequality of the cirri, the position of the vulva, the size of the ova, the number of 
papillae, all go to prove that the species was not the same as that which we have 
described above. From the size and inequality of the cirri it may indeed be inferred 
that the form studied by Dujardin was not an Ascaris at all. 
Krabbe 2 was the first to distinguish Ascaris simplex from the other Ascarids found 
in Seals and Dolphins ; that is to say, from (1) Ascaris osculcita, Rudolphi, from Phoca 
grcenlandica and Phoca harbata, Halichcerus grypus, Cystophora cristata, and Triche- 
chus rosmarus ; (2) Ascaris decipiens, Krabbe, from Phoca grcenlandica , Phoca barbata, 
Phoca hispicla, Phoca vitulina, Cystophora cristata, and Trichechus rosmarus ; (3) 
Ascaris lobulata, Schneider, from Platanista gangetica; (4) Ascaris conocephala, 
Krabbe, from Delphinus delphis and Clymenia. He described Ascaris simplex from 
Lagenophrys albirostris, Beluga leuccis, Hyperoodon rostratus, and Monodon monoceros, 
and figures the upper lip and the posterior extremity of the male. 
The Ascaris patagonica, which I have described 3 from an Otaria jubata captured off 
Patagonia by Professor Behn on his voyage round the world, is entirely different from 
Ascaris simplex, as a glance at the figure will at once show. 
That this parasite, hitherto found only in Dolphins, should occur in Otaria jubata , 
Forster, is somewhat remarkable, as no other case is known of a species infesting both 
Seals and Cetacea. 
2. Ascaris spiculigera, Rud. (PI. I. figs. 5—7). 
Specimen labelled : “ Ascaris from the stomach of Phalacr ocor ax verrucosus , 4 January 
1874, Kerguelen Island (Shag.).” 
The vessel contained thirty-eight Nematodes, of which thirty-six belonged to the 
above species. 
The body is short and thick ; the smallest specimens, still sexually immature, were 
5-44 mm. in length by (P27 mm. in breadth. The cuticle exhibits regular transverse 
wrinkles, 0-003 mm. in breadth. The oesophagus measures ^§, and the tail of the total 
1 Histoire des Helminthes, Paris, 1845, pp. 220, 221. 
2 Kong, dansk. Vidensk. Fork., 1878, pp. 47-49, fig. 2, tab. i. fig. 4. 
3 Archiv f. Naturgesch., Jahrg. xlvi. Bd. i., 1880, pp. 41, 42, pi. iii. fig. 1. 
4 Zool. Chall. Exp., vol. ii. pt. viii., Phalacrocorax verrucosus, Cab., p. 122. 
