Acanthopsolus lageniformis, N. Sp., a trematode in the catfish / by Marie V. Lebour.

  • Lebour, Marie Victoria, 1876-1971.
Date:
[1909?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Acanthopsolus lageniformis, N. Sp., a trematode in the catfish / by Marie V. Lebour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    (In the previous description the coeca were described as not reaching so far). Between the termination of the coeca is a pear-shaped excretory vesicle reaching nearly to the level of the hind end of the testes and opening posteriorly and slightly dorsally. The genital opening is a transverse slit situated in the middle line immediately in front of the ventral sucker. At times it is very difficult to see, but usually in the living worm it can easily be made out as it is constantly opening and shutting. This leads to a small genital sinus, into which open the male and female ducts, male on the right and female on the left. The testes are longitudinally oval bodies, 0-08 mm. in length and 0-05 mm. broad, occurring ventrally to the intestinal lobes and a little nearer the posterior end of the body than the ventral sucker. They are symmetrically placed one on each side of the body. From each testis runs a narrow vas deferens, and these join the vesicula seminalis behind the ventral sucker. The vesicula seminalis is divided into two nearly equal parts by a constriction, and lies completely within the club-shaped cirrus sac. The latter is dorsal to the ventral sucker, in pressure preparations it may be seen either to the right or left side. It contains in front of the vesicula seminalis, a long ductus ejacula- torius, the first part of which is a weakly developed pars prostatica surrounded by gland cells, and the next part is armed for about a quarter of its length with sharp spines with round bases; the terminal part is unarmed and very much curled up. This duct appears to be a protrusible cirrus, although I have not seen it exserted. The ovary is a circular body generally situated im- mediately in front of the right testis and is slightly smaller than that organ. Dorsally it gives off a long oviduct which makes a twist before giving off a receptaculum seminis and a Laurer’s canal. The vitelline duct opens into it just after it gives off the receptaculum seminis. The latter organ when full of sperms is quite conspicuous and of a roundish form. In some specimens it is hardly visible, and the sperms are to be seen moving about in the oviduct and in Laurer’s canal. The vitellaria take up almost the whole of the rest of the body, extending dorsally from the extreme posterior end to the level of the centre of the pharynx, only leaving a small median part uncovered. They partly cover the intestinal coeca ventrally. They consist of large lobules indistinctly connected by lateral longitudinal vessels from which a thick transverse branch runs across each side in the region of the ovary to unite in a large receptacle from which a duct enters the oviduct. After receiving