262 
LERNAEOPODA SCYLLICOLA n. sp., A PARASITIC 
COPEPOD OF SCYLLIUM CANICULA. 
By W. HAROLD LEIGH-SHARPE, B.Sc., A.C.P. 
Lecturer in Zoology at the University Tutorial College, London; 
Demonstrator in Biology at Guy's Hospital Medical School, London. 
Part I. 
(With 6 Text-figures.) 
Habitat and Record. The animal under consideration, a parasitic 
member of the Copepoda, and belonging to the family Lernaeopodidae, 
occurs commonly on the males, and much less frequently on the females, 
of Scyllium canicula. The point of fixation is just outside the cloaca, 
between the pelvic fins, the parasite remaining attached permanently 
by the second maxillae to the tissues of the host, and occasionally even 
to the claspers, on their sides, preferably in the groove. I have several 
times found as many as six specimens on one host (Fig. 1), while three 
or four is a usual number. 
Only the females are dealt with in this paper. Considering the 
hundreds of dogfish used every year by students for the purposes of 
dissection, and that this parasite appears on the majority of them, 
I was astonished that neither Scott (1912-13) in an account of British 
Copepods, nor Wilson (1915) in his excellent and voluminous monograph 
on the family Lernaeopodidae mentions any parasite whatever occurring 
on Scyllium. Bassett-Smith (1896), who worked at Plymouth, fails 
also to record any Copepod upon Scyllium. Richiardi (1880) was 
apparently the first to mention a species which he considered new 
belonging to this family and occurring upon Scyllium stellare, but as he 
gave neither description nor figures it cannot be certain that he was 
dealing with the same parasite as that which I am at present considering. 
Brian (1898) degraded Lernaeopoda scyllii Richiardi 1880 as synonymous 
with L. galei KrjWer 1837, from specimens found on S. stellare and 
S. canicida, but he did not assign any reasons for his decision. Krdyer’s 
figures are too small and ambiguous to be enlightening, and in comparing 
