Nematode Parasites of Vertebrates in the Philadelphia Zoological Garden and Vicinity

Abstract

Emended descriptions of the female of Ascaridia hermaphrodita (Froelich 1789) and of the male of Wellcomia evoluta (Linstow 1899) are given. The female of A. hermaphrodita is described in full as a description of it does not appear in the literature. Several corrections are made of errors found in descriptions. Especially noticeable is the illustration of the male tail of W. evoluta by Yorke and Maplestone (1926), p. 197, (fig. 131 E) which they wrongly label “Posterior extremity of female (After Hall).”Further evidence is furnished upon the probable life-cycle of a species of the genus Eustrongylides in showing that pre-adult stages of E. wenrichi Canavan 1929 have been found encysted in a fish, as well as in a frog and amphiuma (“Congo eel”); the adults of the worm were found in a Canadian goose. Thus confirming Jaegerskiöld in his opinion that fish are the intermediate host and fish-eating aquatic birds are the final hosts of the genus.Superparasitism is shown to be of fairly common occurrence. Numerous records of new hosts are mentioned. Three worms that previously were found and described by the writer as new were found again. In each case they were encountered in new but closely related hosts to those in which they were previously found.There are five new species and one new genus described and illustrated in this paper (II): Pharyngostrongylus brevis sp. nov. from a Bernard's kangaroo, Phascolostrongylus turleyi gen. et sp. nov. from a common wombat. Oesophagostomum vigintimembrum sp. nov. from an Arabian camel, Ascaris hippopotami sp. nov. from a hippopotamus and Diplotriaena bifidus sp. nov. from both blue-bearded and pileated jays.Finally, there are 209 determinations of 39 genera and 69 species, including new ones, from 181 hosts involving 94 different host species.