A new trematode of the genus Lechriorchis from the dark green snake (Zamenis gemonensis) / by Marie V. Lebour.

  • Lebour, Marie Victoria, 1876-1971.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A new trematode of the genus Lechriorchis from the dark green snake (Zamenis gemonensis) / 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.

    5/8 (page 935)
    end, where it is surrounded liy large deeply staining cells; just in front of the opening the vesicle is much folded, giving it the a2ipearance of having been “ puckered in ” before the narrow opening. In front of this pleating it widens out as a large tube running dorsal to and jiRi'aHel with the ascending limb of the uterus; in front of the testes and behind the ovary it forks, each limb reaching far forward beyond the ventral sucker to about midway between the ventral sucker and jihaiynx. The testes are oval bodies more or less lobed on their inner margins, usually lying obliquely with the right testis in front of the left; the usual situation is for the right to be about0T5 mm. in front of the left, but they may be almost on a level, and in two cases the left testis was in front of the right. Curiously enough, these variations occurred in the small immature worm and in the largest siiecimen. It is just possible that we may have to do here with a different species. In a siiecimen 52 mm. in length the testes measured, right 0‘90 mm. x 0-44 mm., left 0'84 mm. x 0'44 mm., the greater axis lying longitudinally. On the inner margin there are two or three lobes. The cirrus-sac is long and reaches almost to the posterior level of the ventral sucker. Sometimes it reaches the extreme posteilor end, and in two cases (again the immature worm and the largest) it was much shorter and only reached a short way behind the anterior margin of the ventral sucker; in this respect being much nearer L. validus Nicoll. The vesicula seminalis is much convoluted and occiqhes the posterior third of the cirrus-sac, the ductus ejaculatorius being surrounded by an enormous ma.ss of jirostatic cells and ending in a short protrusible cirrus often to be seen exserted from the genital pore. The male o|iening is on the right side of the genital ^lore, which is situated on a level with the centre of the pharynx and midway between it and the lateral margin of the body-wall. The ovary is almost round, and lies dorsally on the right side of the body immediately in front of the i-ight testis. It overlaps the ventral sucker for about a third of its diameter; its position varies however, and in some cases it may be rather more than this and in others not so much. The portion of the ovary that overlaps the cirrus-iiouch is on its right side. The oviduct receives a large shell-gland, gives off a Laurer’s canal, and receives the vitellarian duct, then runs down as the uterus in many coils to nearly the posterior end of the body, when it doubles back as a much broader tube, runs forward gradually straightening and narrowing and jiasses the ventral sucker dorsally. In the course of the descending ^lortion behind the right testis is a recejitaculum seminis uterinum. When the uterus reaches the level of the anterior ends of the excretory vesicle its walla form a vagina with a thick cuticular lining, and surrounded by a layer of deejily staining large cells which accompany it for the whole of its course until it opens on the left side of the genital pore. The eggs are very numerous and of a deep brown colour when old, the young eggs being much paler. [3]