An analysis of natural infections of Toxocara mackerrasae in Rattus fuscipes trapped in rain forests in south-eastern Queensland is given and Hydromys chrysogaster is listed as a new host.

T. mackerrasae larvae in egg-infected mice are incapable of somatic migration but some complete development to the young adult stage can occur entirely within the alimentary tract. T. mackerrasae is capable, in low numbers, of developing to maturity in experimentally infected Rattus spp.

The work was financed by grants from the University of Queensland and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. I wish to thank Professor J. F. A. Sprent for his criticisms and suggestions during the preparation of this text.

1. The percentage conversion of cercariae into schistosomula, when the former were penetrating human epidermal sheets, was found not to be significantly affected by the underlying media 1—5 (Table 1). The percentage conversion varied from 16·4% (in normal saline underlying skin) to 26.2 %. When distilled water was the underlying medium significantly fewer cercariae penetrated the sheets.

2. There was a statistically significant decrease in the percentage conversion of cercariae to schistosomula when sodium chloride final concentration 0·67 % was placed in the exposure tube with the cercariae (1·6 % P = < 0·02 when compared with La Ye medium); 0·43 % sodium chloride also significantly decreased penetration.

3. There was a statistically significant decrease in the percentage conversion of cercariae to schistosomula when the orientation of the human epidermis was reversed, i.e. the biologically inner surface was exposed to the cercariae (2.6 %, P = < 0.02, when compared with La Ye medium).

4. Schistosomula agglutinated in the presence of normal or immune human serum or horse serum. In human serum to which donor red blood cells had been added, many red cells adhered to the schistosomula. The number adhering was less in inactivated serum. The adhesion was specific for red cells, the effect not occurring with either yeast cells or silicic acid particles. The red cells were shed from the surface of the schistosomulum after 4—12 h.

I should like to thank the following: Dr S. A. Ibrahim, in whose laboratory this work was carried out; Dr S. Dawood of the Stack Laboratory, Khartoum for the use of his microscope; Mr T. R. Melrose and Mr J. R. Lauder for valuable discussions; the Medical Research Council, U.K., and the University of Khartoum for research grants. I am very grateful to the Pathology Department Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum, for preparing the sections of human epidermis.

Following a 2–5 ml meal containing 2 g (80%) glucose and 30 mg methionine administered by stomach tube at 09.00 h, H. diminuta was found to change its position in the rat's intestine. Usually while the stomach contained food ≤ 45 %, by weight, of the tapeworm lay in the posterior 40 % of the small intestine, after the stomach was empty the reverse was true.

The effect of hyperosmotic fluid entering the duodenum was determined by injecting, following laparotomy, varying amounts of 80 % glucose and 1 ml of varying concentrations. A volume ≤ 0-4 ml of 80 % led to the death and expulsion of worms within 7 h, and 1 ml of < 50 % glucose also killed the worms.

The expulsion of 15 % of the tapeworms from rats given 2–5 ml hypertonic meal by mouth was correlated with the failure of the stomach in some rats to regulate the stomach emptying. Worms in these rats were found from 4 h onwards in the caecum and large intestine, and by 9 h in the faeces.

That the movement of worms, other than those expelled, was not caused by a sub-lethal flux of hyperosmotic fluid was shown by feeding an iso-osmotic meal to rats; the worms moved to a more posterior position during the day, but none was expelled.

Single worm infections in rats kept on a normal feeding regime until 07.00 h and then starved throughout the day also showed a posterior migration. Using a method which involved the simultaneous cutting of the small intestine into 5 cm sections, it was possible to show that this movement involved the whole worm, the scolex moving from a mean position 10–15 cm to one 20–25 cm from the stomach, and the terminal proglottid moving from approximately 75 cm to 95 cm from the stomach.

Worms in Wistar rats responded similarly to those in SPF CFE (Sprague Dawleys) with the exception that there was some evidence that the stomach emptying of a hyperosmotic meal was better controlled and hence a smaller percentage of the worms were expelled.

The results are discussed in relation to diurnal changes in the level of the external site location stimulus which other workers have shown to exist by surgically transplanting H. diminuta into the ileum.

The enthusiastic assistance of Miss Helen Stallard, B.Sc., and Miss Patricia Grant is gratefully acknowledged, and financial support from the Medical Research Council, London (Grant No. G967/164/T).

Some factors affecting the suceptibility of chick embryos to E. tenella infection have been examined. An incubation temperature of 41 °C was found to be more suitable for the development of the parasite than 38 or 39 °C. At the higher temperature development of schizonts was more rapid and mortality caused by the parasite occurred earlier and was substantially greater. Mortality, caused by E. tenella, was dose related and doses between 15000 and 45000 sporozoites produced 100 % mortality in embryos incubated at 41 °C.

There were differences in the susceptibility of three strains of W.L. embryos to E. tenella infection; ‘S’ strain W.L. embryos were more susceptible than either ‘C’ or ‘K’ strains. However, the susceptibility was not evident in hatched chickens of the ‘S’ strain.

Two laboratory strains of E. tenella (‘W’, ‘H’) were shown to produce different mortality levels in embryos; the ‘W’ strain was markedly more virulent, perhaps because schizonts of the 2nd generation matured more rapidly in both embryos and chickens inoculated with this strain of E. tenella.

I wish to thank Dr R. K. Cole of Cornell University for making three strains of W.L. embryos available to me for this work. I also wish to thank the Governing Body of the Houghton Poultry Research Station; the Agricultural Research Council and the Avian Diseases Department of Cornell University for making it possible for me to undertake a substantial part of this work at that University in 1968. Grateful thanks are due to Dr P. P. Levine, D. L'Amoreaux and M. S. Shirley for their help at various stages of the work.

Several species of Australian python, Morelia spilotes variegatus, Liasis amethy-stinus, L. fuscus and L. childreni, were experimentally infected with eggs of Ophidascaris moreliae and the development of the larvae described. The first moult occurred in the egg, which survived and remained infective for over 7 years in moist conditions. The first moult occurred in 12 days and the second-stage larva in the egg was infective to mice in 14–21 days. After ingestion the larvae migrated to liver and lungs and in 21 days were mainly distributed throughout the subcutaneous tissues, particularly in the neck region and behind the ears. Growth occurred to about 8 mm; the larvae attained their infectivity for pythons after 5 weeks and retained it for more than a year. The second moult was not observed but it was assumed that the third stage was infective for pythons. Development to about the same length occurred in guinea-pigs and indigenous and laboratory rats and in the bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus). In the possum (Tricho-surus sp.) a more rapid growth occurred to about the same length. No growth occurred in tadpoles.

After ingestion by pythons larvae migrated to the lungs, where they remained for 3 months or more, grew to a length of 45 mm and underwent the third moult. Larvae removed from the lungs and reingested by pythons returned to the lungs if they had been in the first python for less than 60 days. After this time, they remained in the stomach of the second python. During the third moult larvae underwent a marked constriction of the anterior end, moved up the trachea and became attached in the upper oesophagus as fourth-stage larvae. In mouse-infected M. spilotes the third moult occurred at 117 days at a length of 23–45 mm; fourth-stage larvae measured 34–50 mm. The fourth moult occurred in the stomach at 318 days at a length of 37–55 mm. The smallest adult specimens found were a 55 mm male and a 63 mm female. Development to the adult stage was only observed in M. spilotes variegatus. In other python species only pre-adult forms were recovered. It appeared that development may be retarded at the fourth moult during the winter. The morphology of the larvae during the five stages of development is described. It is concluded that the main growth phases are the third stage in the lungs of the python and the adult stage in the stomach of the python. Encapsulated forms were found only in the tissues of intermediate hosts. The larvae from mouse tissues emerged from the capsules during putrefaction and survived for several weeks in water.

Acknowledgement is made to the able technical assistance of Miss Marian Hollis. Financial assistance for this study was provided under grants from the Australian Research Grants Committee and the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare no. A 107023–02.

A study has been made of the parenchyma of adult male Schistosoma mansoni by electron microscopy. Four different cell types have been characterized: one corresponding to cell bodies of the integument, two to muscle cells and another one to nerve cells with a possible neurosecretory function. The cytoplasm of the integument cell bodies is characterized by rod-shaped and round membrane-bound cytoplasmic bodies with a dense core, measuring 1200 to 2000 Å, similar to those found in the integument. One type of muscle cell has a large, clear nucleus, characteristic cytoplasmic vacuoles measuring up to 1 μm with a finely granular content and numerous free ribosomes. The other type of muscle cell is much smaller, with clumped nuclear chromatin and scanty perinuclear cytoplasm. Both types of cells give rise to muscle fibres which are morphologically distinct from the perinuclear cytoplasm. The nerve cells contain electron-dense, membrane-bound vesicles-ranging in size from 1000 to 3000 Å, similar to those found in nerve axons.

Appreciable extracellular matrix has only been found under the integument and surrounding the processes of the integument cell bodies. This observation and the fact that silver methenamine after periodic oxidation stains intensely both the extracellular substance and the rod-shaped and round cytoplasmic bodies of the integument cells, suggests that these integument cells may be involve the production of extracellular matrix.

This investigation was supported by grant AI 07806 from the U.S.P.H.S.

The technical assistance of Mrs Lucille Jeffries and the photographic assistance of Mr William Douglas are acknowledged. This investigation was supported by the United States–Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program administered by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Rabbits and mice, but not sheep, guinea-pigs or rats, were suitable hosts for secondary echinococcosis using protoscoleces obtained from Australian sheep. The host specificity is tentatively related to the phylogenetic relationship between the donor host and receptor host.

The development rate of hydatid cysts in mice is described in terms of increase in fresh weight, dry weight, and maximum cyst diameter. Fertile cysts were found after 8 months when the water content of the cysts had increased to more than 95 %. The diameter of fertile cysts up to 14 months ranged from 6 to 30 mm. By 14 months, the average fresh weight of cysts was greater than the body weight of the mice.

This work was carried out during the tenure of an Australian Wool Board Senior Postgraduate Scholarship, and forms part of a thesis to be presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Australian National University.

I wish to thank my supervisor, Professor J. D. Smyth, for guidance and criticism.

Estimates were made of the intake of strongyloid infective larvae by sheep at pasture by the recovery of larvae from samples of herbage collected through oesophageal fistulae.

All herbage eaten was not recovered through the fistula but few larvae were lost in the process of mastication and swallowing. More larvae could be recovered from macerated than from undamaged herbage.

Samples were obtained from different sheep on different days and at different times during the day and the variance components associated with these factors were estimated from seven sets of observations. The contribution to variance differed widely for each factor with the major contribution coming from time changes in the differences between sheep.

The authors wish to thank Mr G. W. Major for valuable technical assistance throughout these studies.

Cysteine (20–100 mM) and reduced glutathione (20–80 mM) potentiated the development of the exsheathed third-stage larva of Haemonchus contortus to the fourth stage. The potentiating effect of cysteine was greatest during the short period before and after the exsheathment of the third-stage larva. Two hundred mM cysteine and 1 mM p–chloro-benzoate inhibited development. This inhibition was reversible. Ten mM iodoacetate and 0·5 and 5 mM n–ethyl-maleimide inhibited development of the larvae. The larvae appeared to be most susceptible to the inhibiting effects of these reagents during the period of development approaching the third moult. Development was either little affected or potentiated, when larvae were incubated with these reagents for short periods immediately after exsheathment.

A description is given of some features of the embryonic development, the structure of the oncomiracidium and the postlarval development of R. emarginata, a hexabothriid parasite on the gills of Raia clavata.

There are three phases in the larval development of the haptor of Rajonchocotyle: an oncomiracidial or marginal hook stage, a hamulus stage and a sucker stage. Neither the embryo nor the oncomiracidium ever possesses more than five pairs of marginal hooks and marginal hooks I (the posterior-most pair) are considered to be missing. The marginal hooks develop within distinct binucleate oncoblasts. During the early stages of post-oncomiracidial growth the secondary attachment organs of the haptor are formed and it is only after the completion of the development of the haptor that the reproductive organs begin to appear. Firstly, a pair of hamuli is acquired, followed by four pairs of suckers, which form in posterior-anterior succession at the site of marginal hooks III-VI. The first pair of suckers remains unarmed while the other three pairs acquire hooked sclerites and become the main functional attachment organs of the adult. As the first pair of suckers appears the posterior part of the haptor lengthens to form a caudal appendage. Hexabothriids are considered to show closer affinity to the 8-suckered chimaericolids and diclidophorids than to the 6-suckered polysto-matids, the unarmed suckers representing a simplification, by loss of the sclerite and reduction in sucker size, of an originally armed sucker.

I would like to express my thanks to Dr J. Llewellyn for his interest and for much helpful discussion.

Thanks are also due to the Director and Staff of the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth, in particular Mr J. E. Green for material and assistance, and to Dr A.j Brinkmann, of the Department of Zoology, University of Bergen, for supplying specimens of Squalonchocotyle borealis.

Daily 1 mg doses of a cortisone derivative, betamethasone, caused an increase in oocyst production and extended the patent period of E. mivati infections in partially immunized chickens. The more prolonged the course of cortisone injections, the greater the effect, although this was substantial when only a single dose was given, especially if this was at or near to the time of oocyst inoculation. E. mivati infections in susceptible chickens were similarly affected but not to such a great extent.

The possible means whereby cortisone treatment reduces acquired immunity to E. mivati infection are discussed.

Thanks are due to Mrs P. Hesketh and to other members of the parasitology department for technical assistance, also to the senior poultry attendant for care of the animals. Mr C. C. Wannop examined several of the birds post mortem.

Surgical bursectomy or thymectomy at day old had little effect on primary or subsequent infections with E. brunetti or E. maxima.

Whole body irradiation of day-old chickens with 700 or 750 R did not affect the development of immunity to these Eimeria spp., but in some experiments it affected oocyst production during initial infections.

In one of four trials, birds surgically bursectomized and irradiated produced twice as many E. brunetti oocysts during an initial infection as the irradiated only controls; in the remaining three trials, oocyst production in the operated birds was either similar to or slightly greater than that in the controls. Combined bursectomy and irradiation did not affect immunity to re-infection.

Combined thymectomy and irradiation had little effect on primary infections (increased oocyst output was found in only one of six trials) and no effect on subsequent immunity; mean body weights and circulating lymphocyte numbers were decreased but tuberculin sensitivity was reduced in only a small proportion of the birds, indicating that the cell mediated immune responses of the majority were not affected.

Small (0.75 mg) daily doses of cortisone acetate given to irradiated birds or irradiated thymectomized birds, did not affect resistance to reinfection with E. brunetti.

We wish to thank Dr B. M. Freeman for surgical bursectomy; Mr E. A. King, Department of Radiotherapeutics, University of Cambridge, for irradiation and members of the technical staff of the Parasitology Department for their willing and skilled assistance.

Cortisone treatment of BL chickens given oocysts of Eimeria mivati resulted in the production of greater numbers of oocysts in the faeces and a prolonged patent period.

Schizonts were seen in sections of the intestines of treated birds up to the 24th day after oocyst inoculation although none was seen in control chickens after the 8th day. These late schizonts resembled those of the 3rd and 4th generations recorded for this species but may be those of a generation not yet described.

The depletion of intestinal lymphoid tissue in cortisone-treated birds is noted. The findings are discussed with reference to host-parasite relationships.

We wish to thank the scientific assistants and senior poultry attendant of the department for their help throughout the work.

It has been shown that mating involving mutual exchange of spermatophores takes place in the skin-parasitic monogenean Entobdella soleae from Solea solea. The spermatophores are attached to the ventral surface of the body in the region of the vaginal opening and they are sucked into the vagina after mating by muscular contractions of the vaginal region.

Mating takes place between young individuals with no vitellaria and between fully mature egg-laying adults but there is no evidence that self-fertilization takes place.

The apparatus which manufactures the spermatophores is described and the evidence indicates that spermatozoa are injected into the jelly-like matrix of the spermatophore as the matrix is being extruded into the surrounding sea-water.

I would like to thank the Director and Staff of the Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth for providing excellent facilities for this work and I am particularly grateful to Mr J. E. Green, who kindly fed and maintained infected soles at the Laboratory.

Filariids of birds of Taiwan, Palawan and Sabah are discussed. Oceanifilaria verrucosa gen. et. sp.nov. from woodpeckers is proposed in Dicheilonematinae. It differs from other genera in the subfamily in having asymmetrical caudal alae, in lacking sessile papillae between the alae and in possessing a band of cuticular bosses at the anterior end followed by a bare zone, the latter followed by irregular bosses over the rest of the body. Aprocta calliderma sp.nov. from a cuckoo differs from A. papillosa Chabaud, Anderson & Brygoo, 1959, in having an oesophagus about one-sixth as long. Parornithofilaria hepatica sp.nov. from a pigeon differs from P. lienalis (Orloff, 1947) Sonin, 1965, in having unequal spicules with the right 110–120 mm and the left 140–175 μm long. Parornithofilaria sonini sp.nov. from magpies differs from P. hepatica in spicule shape, tail length and distribution of caudal papillae. Other species reported and briefly discussed are: Hamato-spiculum quadridens (Molin, 1858) Boulenger, 1928, H. cylindricum (Zeder, 1803) Hartwich, 1954; Aprocta lepidogrammi (Tubangui & Masiluñgan, 1937) Anderson & Chabaud, 1958; A. cylindrica Linstow, 1883; Pseudaprocta decorata Li, 1933; P. gubernacularia Schikhobolova, 1930; P. sichoealinensis Oshmarin & Belous, 1951; Paraprocta brevicauda (Chandler, 1924) Maplestone, 1931; Paronchocerca tonkinensis (Chow, 1939) Lopez-Neyra, 1947; Diplotriaena corrugata Wehr, 1930; D. epsilon Johnston & Mawson, 1940; D. henryi Blanc, 1919; D. leiperi Anderson, 1959; D. ozouxi (Railliet & Henry, 1909) Henry & Ozoux, 1909; D. pungens (Schneider, 1866) Henry & Ozoux, 1909; and D. unguiculata (Rudolphi, 1819) Li, 1933.

We wish to acknowledge the field support by Dr D. S. Rabor, Department of Biology, Silliman University, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Republic of the Philippines, and the technicians of the Parasitology Department of Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 for general assistance in procurement and examination of hosts. Dr B. J. Myers assisted with initial handling of the specimens.