OCR Text |
Show 788 MR. A. H. GARROD ON PLAGIOTCENIA GIGANTEA. [Nov. 20, 5. O n the Tcenia of the Bhinoceros of the Sunderbunds (Plagiotcenia gigantea, Peters). By A. H. G A R R O D, M.A., F.R.S., Prosector to the Society. [Eeceived October 1, 1877.] In 1856 ** Dr. Wm. Peters described a tapeworm which he found in an African Rhinoceros from Mossambique, which he named Tcenia gigantea. In 1870 2 Dr. Murie described the adult proglottides of a tapeworm passed by an Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) living in the Society's Gardens at the time, which he named Tcenia magna ?. In 1871 3 Dr. Peters communicated to the Society a Note on the results of a comparison of his specimens of Tcenia gigantea with Dr. Murie's description and figures of his Tcenia magna ?, showing their identity, and suggesting the generic name Plagiotcenia for the species. During this summer I have had the opportunity of eviscerating a half-grown female of Rhinoceros sondaicus, from the Sunderbunds, which had been a little more than six months in this country. In the commencement of the colon I found three tapeworms with their heads (scoleces), together with several detached groups of proglottides4, these latter being quite undistinguishable from those figured by Dr. Murie, in form as well as size. Dr. Peters has figured the scolex in his species, which is evidently in a powerfully contracted condition, to which one of m y three spe-mens closely approaches. My other two specimens are not so, and, as a result, differ so much in appearance that I subjoin a figure of one of them. Scolex of Plagiotcenia gigantea, much enlarged; superior and lateral view. Of the specimen here figured the breadth (after being kept in alcohol) of the scolex, opposite the suckers, is 4 millimetres, whilst the depth, to the lower of the two more strongly marked transverse 1 Monatsb. der Akad. der Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1856, p. 469. 2 P. Z. S. 1870, p. 608. 3 P. Z. S. 1871, p. 146. 4 In his account of his specimens Dr. Murie has most curiously mistaken the groups of proglottides (which he figures) for single segments. |