F. J. Meggitt 3 
ascertained that a small spindle-shaped receptaculum seminis is present and 
that the female glands are posterior and ventral. 
The onchospheres, in groups of 5-8, are enclosed in capsules which fill the 
whole field, extending laterally beyond the longitudinal excretory vessels 
but not beyond the nerve. 
The only species of tapeworm so far recorded from the ostrich belong to the 
genus Davainea. The first mention of any Cestode parasites from this host was 
by Houttuyn (1773) and Rudolphi (1810 and 1819) who listed under the name 
of Taenia struthionis a form from Struthio camelus. Their records were unac¬ 
companied by any description whatsoever, and it was not until the appearance 
of Parona’s paper (1885) that the species mentioned by the two previous authors 
was given characters which adequately distinguished it. A few years later it 
was placed by Fuhrmann (1896, 128) in the new genus Davainea. In 1893, 
von Linstow described from Struthio molybdophanos forms which he regarded 
as belonging to this species, but at the same time found certain discrepancies 
between his own observations and Parona’s account. From Struthio australis 
L. (= S. australis Gurn.?) Hungerbiihler (1910, 511) later described under the 
name Davainea struthionis (Houtt.) cestodes which he believed identical with 
both Parona’s and von Linstow’s specimens but which differed from those of 
the latter in having a rostellum armed with numerous rows of fine thorn¬ 
shaped hooks, 0‘005 mm. long, in addition to the usual double circle of ros- 
tellar hooks. No further investigations, beyond those of Zilluf (1912) on the 
musculature of the scolex, were made until 1915 when Beddard showed, while 
describing the anatomy of some Davaineas from Struthio masaicus , that the 
descriptions of von Linstow and Parona applied to separate species, thus 
accounting for the discrepancies mentioned above. His own specimens, he 
concluded, might or might not be identical with those found by Parona, but 
were certainly different from those found by von Linstow. Speaking of his own 
and Parona’s forms, he states (p. 601), “If we can trust as differential char¬ 
acters the diameter of the proglottides and the size of the scolex then the 
two forms are different. There are no other data that seem to permit of a 
more definite expression of opinion,” and on these grounds does not name 
his specimens. At this time there are thus two well-defined species of tape¬ 
worms parasitic in Struthio, one from S. molybdophanos described by von 
Linstow, and the other described by Parona and Beddard from S. camelus 
and S. masaicus respectively. Hungerbiihler’s specimens from S. australis 
agree best with those described by von Linstow, the scolex and cirrus-sac 
being of approximately the same size, while the characters in which they 
differ, the presence of a rostellum and its additional armature, are such as 
would not be apparent in poorly preserved specimens and so may possibly 
have been overlooked by von Linstow. 
From the first of these two species the form found at Nairobi differs in 
the presence of calcareous corpuscles and of a rostellum, in the absence of 
pigment in the scolex, in the shape of the hooks and in the length of the 
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