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REPORT ON ZOOLOGY, MDCCCXLIl : 
round capsule, from which a fibrous funiculus arises at both poles, for 
attaching them to the base of the ovaries. The reporter saw the eggs 
with these capsules lying free in the already mentioned tubes ; some of 
them on the one side, others even on both sides had two separate fibred 
cords. The darkish egg-covering enclosed in the capsule contained some- 
times an embryo, which resembled the young Nematoidea ; it had a 
blunt tail-end and a strongly thickened head-end, on which the reporter 
distinguished a protrusible prickle or bulging out oesophagus. 
Dujardin gives the following diagnosis of this new genus: — Mermis, 
Corpore longissimo filiformi, elastico, antice parumper attenuate ; capite 
subinflato, ore terminali minimo rotundo ; intestine simplice, postice 
obsolete, ano nullo ; vulva antica, transversa. In all respects, this worm 
is worthy of a particular genus, which forms the transition from the 
Gordii to the Nematoidea. It has, in common with Gordius, the highly 
characteristic fibrous layer under the epidermis, as well as the want of 
an anus ; while the muscular walls, with the two bands running along 
them, rather remind us of the Nematoidea, although the internal struc- 
ture of this worm is still very enigmatical to the reporter. 
The observations hitherto made on the Filarice of insects have been 
collected together by the reporter (Entom. Zeit. 1842, p. 146). He has 
sought to direct the attention of Entomologists to this interesting subject 
in Helminthology, that a more exact knowledge may be acquired on 
these parasites of insects, which appear to dilfer much from the Filarice 
of vertebrated animals, for as yet almost nothing has been said of their 
internal structure ; they have only been sometimes superficially com- 
pared with Filaria, and sometimes with Gordius. In how far this call 
has had the desired etfect on Entomologists, the reporter will be able to 
mention in next year’s report ; only this much may be mentioned here, 
that he has come to the conviction, that insects harbour various thread- 
shaped worms totally ditferent from the Nematoidea, and one species of 
which is identical with Gordius aqiiaticus. 
NEMATOIDEA. 
A CURIOUS account has been given, in various periodicals (London and 
Edinb. Monthly Journ. of Med. Sc. 1842, p. 599, Froriep’s Neue Notiz. 
Bd. 24, p. 256, and Microscop. Journ. May, 1842), of a Trichocephalus 
affinis, found in the enlarged and gangrenous tonsil of a soldier at 
Fort Pitt, after death. The identity of this worm with the whip-worm 
(peitchen-wurm), found only in ruminating animals, cannot be received 
unconditionally without a more exact description. 
Busk (Microscop. Journ. 1841, p. 33) has given a description and 
figure of the hinder part of the body of TrichocepJialus dispar, which 
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