Some Helminths from West Africa

Abstract

The material described consists of two small collections. One composed mainly of helminths from birds, was collected by Major T. A. Cockburn, M.D., D.P.H., on the Gold Coast in 1943. The other was collected from mammals by Dr. K. Morris, of the medical department, Kumasi, in 1939. To both of these collectors and to Dr. R. T. Leiper, C.M.G., F.R.S., who kindly put the material at my disposal, I am much indebted.The bird material contained 8 different genera, of which one is a tremtftode, three are cestodes and the others are nematodes. The Acanthocephala are not represented.A Squacco Heron, Ardeola ralloides, yielded a number of specimens of the trematode Clinostomum complanatum (Rud., 1814), Braun, 1899. They were taken from the oesophagus where they were actively moving about at the post-mortem examination. It is a small worm between 3 and 4 mm. long, strongly muscular with comparatively large suckers. The vitellaria are abundant and so deeply staining as somewhat to obscure the other organs. It has previously been recorded as a parasite of Ardea cinerea and Nycticorax griseus in Europe, but apparently both this host and this geographical distribution are new records. The vector is a fish; Ciurea in 1911 having implicated Perca fluviatilis.