The Helminth Parasites of Common Rats

Abstract

While it is true that various lists of rat parasites have been published these, however, deal only with individual Classes of helminths. Notably amongst such publications are those by Hall (1916) dealing with the Class Nematoda, by Meggitt and Subramanian (1927) who treat of the Class Cestoda and by Dollfus (1925) who reviews the species of the Class Trematoda. It was suggested to me by the Imperial Bureau of Agricultural Parasitology that the collection of notes, records and information concerning the helminth parasites of common rats into one single work would be useful and the information contained in the three compilations mentioned above has been largely drawn on in forming the nucleus of this paper. Other publications, found helpful in providing additional information, are those by Balfour (1922) who deals with the parasites of wild rats in England, Baylis (1922), Cleland (1918), Fielding (1928), Johnston (1918), who summarises the knowledge concerning the parasitism of rodents in Australia, Meggitt (1924), Moll (1917), Shipley (1908), and Yorke and Maplestone (1926). For the more recent records, not included in any of the foregoing publications, theVermessection ofThe Zoological Recordand the “Répertoire des Genres nouveaux et des Espèces nouvelles,” appearing in each number of theAnnales de Parasitologie humaine et comparéewere consulted advantageously. The checking of many records, at least of the earlier ones, was accomplished by means of Stiles and Hassall's invaluableIndex-Catalogues(1908, 1912, 1920).