1. Three trichomonads have been cultivated and studied, T. hominis, Trichomonas sp. from M. nemestrinus (= R.T. strain), and T. batrachorum from English frogs and toads.

2. A number of strains of T. batrachorum were cultivated over periods varying from two weeks to five months without the appearance of a Eutrichomastix stage.

3. The division process of T. batrachorum has been studied. The new basal fibre arises as an outgrowth from the blepharoplast. The old axostyle is absorbed and new ones are formed from the daughter blepharoplast during the telophase. Six chromosomes appear during the prophase. Spindle fibres do not appear. There is a separation of the daughter blepharoplasts into centro-some and basal granule at the metaphase.

4. Division of T. hominis and Trichomonas sp. from M. nemestrinus is essentially similar to that of T. batrachorum. The number of chromosomes appeared to be five or six. Double individuals were found in the cultures, and in T. hominis individuals containing four or six sets of organellae. Their significance is obscure.

Little is known about the trematode fauna of India. Hitherto no species has been described from an Indian tortoise except Polystomum kachugae Stewart. In the present paper I describe a new genus Spinometra from a tortoise, and in the systematic account of the family Lepodermatidae I include new observations on other genera which I have studied and which I shall describe in subsequent papers.

The genus Astiotrema Looss is parasitic in reptiles (tortoises and snakes), except Ast. impletum Looss, which is known from a fish Tetradon fahaka. Hitherto three species of this genus have been recorded, two from Egypt and one from Naples (Italy). The present paper contains an account of two more species obtained from tortoises at Allahabad. The allied genus Glypthelmins Stafford is parasitic in Amphibia in North America.

Four specimens of this trematode were obtained from the small intestine of Kachuga smithii in December 1929. Two of the specimens were not sexually mature; for thought they possessed well-developed testes, ovary and a very small receptaculum seminis, they lacked the uterus and ova. In one of these immature specimens the vitellarian follicles were very feebly developed.

Emended descriptions of the female of Ascaridia hermaphrodita (Froelich 1789) and of the male of Wellcomia evoluta (Linstow 1899) are given. The female of A. hermaphrodita is described in full as a description of it does not appear in the literature. Several corrections are made of errors found in descriptions. Especially noticeable is the illustration of the male tail of W. evoluta by Yorke and Maplestone (1926), p. 197, (fig. 131 E) which they wrongly label “Posterior extremity of female (After Hall).”

Further evidence is furnished upon the probable life-cycle of a species of the genus Eustrongylides in showing that pre-adult stages of E. wenrichi Canavan 1929 have been found encysted in a fish, as well as in a frog and amphiuma (“Congo eel”); the adults of the worm were found in a Canadian goose. Thus confirming Jaegerskiöld in his opinion that fish are the intermediate host and fish-eating aquatic birds are the final hosts of the genus.

Superparasitism is shown to be of fairly common occurrence. Numerous records of new hosts are mentioned. Three worms that previously were found and described by the writer as new were found again. In each case they were encountered in new but closely related hosts to those in which they were previously found.

There are five new species and one new genus described and illustrated in this paper (II): Pharyngostrongylus brevis sp. nov. from a Bernard's kangaroo, Phascolostrongylus turleyi gen. et sp. nov. from a common wombat. Oesophagostomum vigintimembrum sp. nov. from an Arabian camel, Ascaris hippopotami sp. nov. from a hippopotamus and Diplotriaena bifidus sp. nov. from both blue-bearded and pileated jays.

Finally, there are 209 determinations of 39 genera and 69 species, including new ones, from 181 hosts involving 94 different host species.

The following description is based upon a single fully engorged female collected under a stone at Kamieskroon, Little Namaqualand, by Dr R. F. Lawrence in October 1930. Dr Lawrence informs me that rock-rabbits were probably the commonest animals about the hill where he found it, but the host of the tick may be a bird.

Record and Habitat. I am indebted to Dr Theodore Monod of Paris for his kindness in sending me four female specimens of Basanistes huchonis (Schrank) which, according to him, is common on Salmo hucho on the inner side of the operculum, in the rivers of Continental Europe. In 1928, Parasitology, 20, 183, I gave an account (in which by an error the specific names of the host and parasite were unfortunately interchanged) of the external features, with figure, from the single specimen in the British Museum, which it is unnecessary to repeat here. As the Museum specimen lacks a bulla and the appendages of Basanistes, owing to its apparent rarity, have not been adequately described, I append the following account. The male is still unknown.

On comparing the figures it will be observed that all the specific characters of Tetrophthalmus titan (A in all figures) closely resemble those of T. subtitan (B in all figures), and that these two species constitute one group; also that the specific characters of T. africanus (C in all figures) closely resemble those of T. australis (D in all figures), and that these species belong to another group, which must also include T. chilensis.

Judged by their parasites, the Ethiopian pelican, Neopelecanus rufescens, is more closely allied to both the Australian pelican, Catoptropelecanus conspicilatus, and the South American species, Pelecanus thagus, than it is to either Pelecanus onocrotalus or Metapelecanus roseus, both of which also occur in the Ethiopian region. Moreover, if the parasites throw any light on the phylogeny of their hosts, thagus cannot remain in the genus Pelecanus along with onocrotalus if the genera Neopelecanus, Metapelecanus and Catoptropelecanus are to remain valid.

Experiments were carried out to show the different hygroscopic properties of certain foods supplied to flea larvae. These show that larvae of Ceratophyllus wickhami require about 15 to 28 per cent, of water in their food. Dried blood, albumen (blood) and material from the bottom of a squirrel's nest were used.

Newly hatched flea larvae were fed on different substances at varying humidities and a constant temperature. A relative humidity of 80 per cent. gave the best results.

Dried blood is a convenient food for breeding flea larvae in the laboratory, and may be used with or without a mixing medium, such as sand. Albumen is a more simple food on which a few larvae will survive, but at lower humdities than dried blood.

Flea larvae will eat a great variety of other foods, including squirrel faeces, ground-up cockroach and dead adult fleas, but these do not provide a complete diet.

It does not seem necessary for the larvae to have dried blood from the host of their parents, rabbit or human blood being quite as satisfactory.

Only a few immature fragments found. Rostellar hooks 0·011–0·014. A spiny collar present posterior to rostellum. Attributed to this species by reason of its being the only cestode of the family recorded from this host, and by the agreement in size of the rostellar hooks. As the original description is so inadequate it is unfortunate that the present form is immature.

Parmi le nombre des Diptères Pupipares de provenances diverses que j'ai eu l'occasion d'étudier récemment, certains, jugés nouveaux, seront décrits ici, d'autres, déjà connus, mais oftrant quelque intérêt aux divers points de vue systématique, éthologique ou géographique, feront l'objet d'une mention spéciale.

On 9. 1. 1928, Mrs R. A. Neuman of Ransomville, N.Y., sent me a tick for identification, stating that it was a kind of “bug” with which she was not familiar and that it was occasionally found on the walls of her home. She collected in all about six specimens, but sent me only one, which proved to be an Ornithodorus talaje (Guérin-Méneville), my identification having been since confirmed by Professor Nuttall and Mr Warburton.