Mary Vincent 
301 
Cephalont (Fig. 3 A). 
The cephalont of Pyxinia anobii is provided with a long slender epimerite, 
which penetrates the whole length of the epithelial cell in which it is imbedded. 
When detached from the gut and examined alive in normal salt solution, the 
cephalont soon sheds its epimerite. A vacuole is formed at the base of the 
epimerite, which presently becomes detached, leaving only a very short 
mobile projection at the anterior end of the protomerite (Fig. 3 C and D). 
Fig. 3. A, cephalont of P. anobii. D, cephalont in the act of shedding its epimerite. C, cephalont 
which has lost its epimerite. B and E, sporonts. All from the living specimens, x 400. 
This phenomenon was observed by Leger and Duboscq (1902) in Pyxinia 
mdbuszi, and it was suggested by them that the cephalont is capable of 
detaching itself from the host-cell, discarding its epimerite, and subsequently 
re-attaching itself to a fresh cell by means of its short digitiform rostrum. 
The protoplasm of the cephalont is granular and light coloured. The 
nucleus varies in its position in the deutomerite. In the living specimen it is 
visible as a somewhat more translucent area. It is spherical in shape and 
contains one, or sometimes several, deeply staining karyosomes. Secondary 
karyosomes arise by a process of budding (Fig. 4 B). 
Parasitology xiv 
