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SOME NOTES ON THE HAEMOGREGARINES 
PARASITIC IN SNAKES. 
By C. CLIFFORD DOBELL, 
Fellow of Trinity College , Cambridge; Balfour Student in the University. 
{From the Zoological Laboratory, Cambridge.) 
(Plate XX.) 
The object of this paper is to describe the protozoan parasites which 
I have encountered in the red blood corpuscles of three different snakes 
—Boa constrictor, Python spilotes and Coluber quatuorlineatus. All the 
Protozoa are members of the genus Haemogregarina. 
Before recording my observations, I wish to make some general 
remarks about the blood parasites of snakes and the work which has 
already been done on them. The literature of the subject is so scattered 
and so curiously muddled at present, that I think no excuse is necessary 
for my attempting to summarise our present knowledge. Although I 
fully agree with Minchin’s remark that, “it is not new species of 
haemogregarines that are needed, but rather new facts about old 
species 1 ,’’ nevertheless, I think these notes may be not wholly useless. 
It is my hope that they may be of service to other investigators who are 
in a position more favourable for working out the life-history of these 
very interesting parasites. 
In the first place, it must be pointed out that we are at present 
quite ignorant as regards the number of species of haemogregarines 
which have been found in snakes. It is by no means certain that 
different hosts always harbour different species of Haemogregarina, So 
long as this remains a matter of uncertainty, there is bound to be diffi¬ 
culty in naming the parasites. In our present state of ignorance, by 
far the most suitable nomenclature—it seems to me—is that which 
simply refers the parasite to its host. For instance, the parasite of 
Python would be called Haemogregarina pythonis. This method—even 
should the name subsequently prove to be a synonym—can lead to very 
little confusion, and is at present of considerable utility. Laveran and 
1 Minelim, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1907. 
