A Revision of the Lung-Worms of Cetacea

Abstract

Great confusion prevails in literature with regard to the various species of nematode worms inhabiting the air-passages and blood-vessels of whales, porpoises and dolphins. These worms form a group analogous, and, as we believe, very closely related to the genera Metastrongylus, Dictyocaulus, Synthetocaulus, and Haemostrongylus, which occur in similar situations in terrestrial mammals. The genera named are referred to the family Meta-strongylidae Leiper (1908), as restricted by the exclusion of the forms now included in the family Trichostrongylidae Leiper (1912). The forms found in Cetacea, of which the typical genus is Pseudalius, have been ranked first as a subfamily Pseudaliinae of “Strongylidae” by Railliet and Henry (1909) and later as a family Pseudaliidae of Strongyloidea by Railliet (1916).