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Show 236 ON A NEMATOID WORM FROM KILIMA-NJARO. [M 5. Note on a Nematoid W o r m (Gordius verrucosus) obtained by Mr. H. H. Johnston on Kilima-njaro. By F. JEFFREY BELL, M.A., F.Z.S. [Received February 3, 1885.] The single specimen of Gordius which was obtained by Mr. Johnston belongs to a well-known and widely-distributed species, but yet presents points of interest such as are almost always absent from so-called new species. So far as m y knowledge extends (and on this particular point it is in advance of that of Dr. Linstow, who, in his valuable 'Compendium der Helminthologie,' does not mention the parasite now under consideration), Gordius verrucosus is, in earlier life, parasitic on a species of the genus Mantis; and there is in the British Museum a specimen of " Mantis, sp.," which, as Mr. Waterhouse has been good enough to point out to me, is really M. membranacea, accompanying a Gordius. The whole of the abdomen of this Orthopteron is completely emptied of its contents. A similarly excavated Mantis, the appearance of which had excited Mr. Waterhouse's wonder, is to be found among the insects collected by Mr. Johnston between 3000 and 5000 feet. A specimen, belonging apparently to the same species, is to be found half in and half out of the abdomen of Hierodula bioculata, a Mantid collected on the west coast of Africa, and lately presented to the Trustees by Dr. Gunther, F.R.S. With regard to the geographical distribution of the species, it is to be noted that it is sufficiently wide to include South Africa and Ceylon ; while there are in the British Museum specimens named respectively by Dr. Baird, the author of the species, and by Dr. Orley, who in 1881 went carefully through the collection in the Museum ; these specimens are reported as coming from Vera Paz, Guatemala (presented by O. Salvin, Esq.), and the " neighbourhood of Irazu, Costa Rica" (presented by Messrs. Godman and Salvin). The fact that the same parasite is to be found in hosts of different species is well known. The present case, in which Mantis membranacea from Ceylon, Idoleum diabolicum from Kilima-njaro, and Hierodula bioculata from West Africa are infested by a common form, is almost exactly paralleled by the case of the Tcenia described by Peters from a Rhinoceros from the Mozambique, and by Murie and Garrod in Rhinoceroses from India. As to the second point which has arisen, the presence of G. verrucosus in Central America, 1 note differences in the form of the integumentary papillae, which are sufficient to induce me to suggest that no stress should be at present laid on this point, though they are not enough, when taken in conjunction with m y own want of experience in the degrees of possible variations, to lead me to put myself into more decided opposition to the views or determinations of such workers as Dr. Baird and Dr. Orley. |
