Planorbis leucostoma Millet has been found to be a natural intermediate host for Paramphistomum hiberniae in the Channel Islands.

Experiments on larval emergence in a series of constant temperatures showed that, of those temperatures tested, 25°C. was the optimum. Results suggest that constant temperatures do not provide optimum conditions for larval emergence and that a higher rate of emergence may occur under fluctuating temperatures. The rate of larval emergence in beet diffusate increased as the initial oxygen concentration increased. Pre-treatment of cysts at low oxygen concentrations reduced the subsequent emergence in diffusate.

1. Thirteen different species of helminth parasites were encountered in eighteen ducks (six Muscovy and twelve Khaki Campbells) on a farm in Berkshire. Of these parasites, four were trematodes, five cestodes, three nematodes and one Acanthocephala.

Hymenolepis collaris, Trichostrongylus tennis and Filicollis anatis are recorded from the domestic duck in Britain for the first time. Hymenolepis anatina and Hymenohpis abortiva are recorded for the first time in England.

It is well known that the first two larval stages in the life cycle of nematodes belonging to the superfamily Strongloidea, have a freeliving existence. During this time, the larva which hatches from the egg feeds actively, undergoes two moults and grows considerably before reaching the infective stage, when it is ready to invade a definitive host. Under natural conditions this external development takes place in the faeces, which have been deposited by the infected host on ground likely to be contaminated with various bacteria.

Taliaferro and Sarles (1939) who studied the cellular reaction in the skin, lung and intestine of normal and immune rats after infection with N.muris, stated that “larvae were found penetrating the skin from a half hour through two hours after they had been placed on the skin. They seemed to penetrate directly…” Yokogawa (1922) observed that this parasite when placed on the skin of rats, penetrated into the tissues very quickly. He did not specify any time for their entrance.

By kind permission of the Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History) the writer has had the opportunity of studying some tapeworms collected from a Greenland Salmon (Salvelinus alpinus subsp. ?) from Ottostrand, East Greenland, in August 1948 by Hjalmar Fleischer of Oslo. The material was found in the “gut” and contained about thirty specimens of an adult Diphyllobothrium, which appears to be new, along with specimens of Diplocotyle olrikii Krabbe, 1874 and Eubothrium crassum (Schrank, 1790).

A collection of parasitic worms was made from Rattus rattus jarak (Bonhote) from Pulau Jarak, “which lies in the middle of the Malacca Straits between Penang and Port Swettenham and some 85 miles from the Sembilan Islands opposite the Dindings.” (Audy, 1950). It was collected by Dr. J. R. Audy, Senior Research Officer of the Division of Virus Research and Medical Zoology, Institute for Medical Research, Kuala Lumpur while investigating scrub-typhus on the island.

Methods are discussed for greatly increasing the cyst content of Helerodera-intested soil, so that very little soil need be “floated” to provide the number of cysts necessary to form a replicate in bioassay. Such a “float” contains very little debris and may be used directly, thus avoiding the laborious and time-consuming step of separating the cysts from the debris. An apparatus for quick recovery of the “float” is described.

1. Nematobothrium labeonis n. sp. from the orbit of three species of Labeo is described.

2. The more recent literature relating to the classification of the genus is considered.

3. N. labeonis is contrasted with related species.

In his “Monograph on the Anguillulidae, or Free Nematoids, Marine, Land and Freshwater; with Descriptions of 100 New Species,” published in 1865, Bastian described a nematode which he found in the yellow lichen Xanthoria (then known as Parmelia) parietina. He named it Aphelenchus parietinus, giving a short description and two drawings. His drawings are reproduced in Fig. 1 and his description is as follows:

A description is given of stainless steel gauze baskets used to contain cysts for infecting potato plants.

1. The first experiment showed that there is a considerable loss of DD vapour from the surface layer of soil, and that this loss is only moderately reduced by using a water seal or a non-gas-tight seal of foil. The effect of this is to leave a residue of potato root-eelworm “survivors” in the top 2 inches of soil and so to make DD less effective than it would be if the loss could be prevented.

2. The second experiment showed that the survivors could be dealt with by treating the soil surface with a micellar solution of p-m cresol, solubilized by the method of Staniland and Stone. It also established the fact that the two treatments behave independently at all levels: there was no interaction between them.

In February, 1958, Dr. Paulian, of Paris, asked the senior author to study his collection of free-living marine Nematodes, collected at Kerguelen Island. The visit of the junior author enabled us to study this material in collaboration; this was the more interesting since she had already made extensive studies of free-living marine Nematodes of the antarctic region (dredged from between 150° E to 40° E by the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition). Moreover, we had access to the recent monograph of Wieser (1958) on the Enoploidea of Chile.