The Animal Parasites of ManFantham, Harold Benjamin
Science
The Animal Parasites of Man
Fantham, Harold Benjamin
Medical parasitology
Syn.: _Amphistomum hominis_, Lew. and McConn.
[267] Leiper places this species in a new genus _Gastrodiscoides_.
Genus _Gastrodiscoides_, Leiper, 1913, distinguished from
_Gastrodiscus_ by: (1) large genital cone; (2) position of genital
orifice; (3) disc without papillæ; (4) testes one behind the other.
[Illustration: FIG. 138.--_Gastrodiscus hominis._ Slightly magnified.
(After Lerckart.)]
_Body_, reddish in the fresh, 5 to 8 mm. long; posteriorly, 3 to 4 mm.
broad. The disc has incurved edges which are interrupted in front where
it joins the anterior cylindrical portion and posteriorly behind the
ventral sucker. The disc itself and ventral surface are covered with a
number of (microscopic) papillæ. Pharynx provided with two diverticula
or pouches. The bifurcation of the gut lies sometimes above, sometimes
below the level of the genital pore. The gut cæca end about the level
of the centre of the acetabulum.
_Genital Pore._--About the middle of the conical anterior portion. (It
appears to be surrounded by a muscular sucker.) Leiper (1913) describes
the ducts as discharging at the tip of a large fleshy papilla, the
surface of which bears cuticular bosses.
_Testes_ much lobed, the anterior is smaller than the posterior and
lies at about the level where the anterior conical portion joins the
disc. The posterior testis just in front of the anterior margin of the
acetabulum separated from it by the ovary. The ovary, somewhat oval in
shape or slightly constricted in the middle, lies slightly to the right
of the median line. Dorsal to it lies the well-developed shell gland,
Laurer’s canal opening in front of the excretory bladder. The excretory
bladder is a long sac with its opening at its posterior extremity
about the level of the middle of the acetabulum. The vitellaria are
restricted in extent. They do not extend forward beyond the anterior
border of the posterior testis. They are best developed in the area
between the acetabulum and the termination of the gut cæca.
The eggs are oval and measure 150 µ in length by 72 µ in breadth.
_Habitat._--Cæcum and large intestine of man. Also in the pig (5 per
cent.) in Annam.
_Distribution._--This parasite has been recorded from Assam (not
uncommon), British Guiana (Indian immigrants), and Cochin China.
_Gastrodiscus ægyptiacus_, Cobbold, 1876, and _G. secundus_, Looss,
1907, occur in the horse; _G. minor_, Leiper, 1913, in the pig in
Nigeria and Uganda.
Family. *Fasciolidæ*, Raill., 1895.
Sub-family. *Fasciolinæ*, Odhner, 1910.
Genus. *Fasciola*, L., 1758.
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