A revision of the adult tapeworms of hares and rabbits / by Ch. Wardell Stiles.

  • Stiles, Charles Wardell, 1867-1941.
Date:
[1896]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A revision of the adult tapeworms of hares and rabbits / by Ch. Wardell Stiles. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/138 (page 146)
    WELLCOME LIBF cestocles which had accidentally gained access to rabbits, or did there exist in American rabbits an adult cestode belonging to the genus Davaineaf The relation of the subject to the taj)eworms of cattle, sheep, and horses made it absolutely necessary from an economic standpoint, and the relation of these forms to the adults in rabbits made it desirable from a scientific standpoint, to immediately revise the adult cestodes found in rabbits. This work was accordingly begun, and in 1895 my paper1 was published announcing the finding of a double-pored cestode with occasional single pores, and the occurrence in American rabbits of a single-pored cestode with a Davainea-like uterus. This paper practically disposed of the young armed cestode of rabbits, for after reading it the natural conclusion of every helminthologist would be that this parasite was probably a Davainea and that we were no nearer the solution of the question as to the young form of Moniezia than we were before. The present paper is the result of the revisional study mentioned above. In it I finally dispose of the armed form mentioned in 1894, and at the same time I am obliged to complicate the question as to the larval stage of Moniezia still further by presenting an unarmed young cestode in rabbits. I further give an anatomical systematic revision of the adult leporine tapeworms, together with their generic relationship to the cestodes of cattle, sheep, and horses. I desire to call particular attention to the young unarmed cestode de- scribed on p. 201. Had any worker found this parasite in an insect, worm, or snail in a locality where cattle and sheep are infested with Moniezia expansa, he would hardly have hesitated to announce the dis- covery of the intermediate host of this important parasite. The find- ing in one host of a larval form whose head resembles a certain adult in another host does not, however, scientifically establish the life history „ of that particular parasite, I can now prophesy confidently that it will be almost, if not entirely, impossible to distinguish the larval stage of M. expansa from that of a dozen or so of other tapeworms, and on account of the great economic importance of this question I caution against any too early and too ungrounded announcement of the source of infection of cattle and sheep by this species. The only work upon this subject which will be worthy of full credence is experimental feeding. Within recent years it has been customary to associate the larvae found parasitic in some animals with the adults parasitic in other hosts ' edause of a similarity of the heads and hooks. This is par- t le case with the avian tapeworms. I feel it necessary to enter Coll. rretest i gainst carrying these generalizations too far, for at present, wel.V®BM6 nmny of the adult avian parasites are so incompletely described Call No. 1 Notes oil-Parasites Centralbl. 36: A double-pored cestode, with occasional single pores, Bakter. u. Parasitenk. 1 Abt., XVII, 13-14, pp. 457-459. ^ 4 fX A