57 
A NEW GENUS OF NEMATODES PARASITIC 
IN ELEPHANTS. 
By H. A. BAYLIS, M.A. 
(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 
(With 7 Text-figures.) 
A re-examination of the type-specimens of “Sclerostoma^ clathratum Baird 
from the African elephant, which are in the British Museum, has led to a 
rather interesting discovery. The material was contained in two bottles, 
labelled in Baird’s own handwriting. One bore fche name “ Sclerostoma 
clathratum Baird,” and contained a single male specimen of the form now 
known as Grammocephalus clathratus. The other bottle was labelled “ Sclero¬ 
stoma clathratum Baird, and proved to contain worms of both sexes and 
of quite a different type from Grammocephalus. 
It is somewhat remarkable that the curious figure given by Baird (1868) 
of the head of Sclerostoma ; clathratum has called forth little or no comment 
from subsequent writers. The fact appears to be that Baird had confused two 
quite distinct species, belonging to widely different genera, and the figure of 
the head (l.c. Fig. 2 a) as also the figures of the supposed female, do not belong 
to the same form as the enlarged figure (2 c) of the male tail, which is that of 
the Grammocephalus of recent authors. 
The species taken for the female of S. clathratum by Baird appears to be 
a worm of Spirurid affinities, and is clearly very closely related to the “ Filaria ” 
smithii of Cobbold (1882), from the Indian elephant. Unfortunately it has 
not been possible to procure specimens of the latter form for comparison; but 
through the kindness of Lt.-Ool. Clayton Lane material belonging to a very 
similar species from the Indian elephant has been placed at the writer’s 
disposal, and on comparison of this and Baird’s material with Cobbold’s 
description and figures it seems clear that all three species belong to one and 
the same genus. 
Railliet, Henry and Bauche (1914) have noted the Spirurid affinities of 
Filaria smithii , and have named it provisionally Spiroptera smithii , using the 
name Spiroptera in default of a clearer definition of its position. The genus to 
which these worms belong seems to the writer to have very close relationships 
with Habronema, Diesing, and may be defined as follows: 
