A NEW NEMATODE FEOM THE EHEABy Everett E. WehkZoological Division, Bureau of Animal Indusim, United States Department ofAgricultureOn April 22, 1927, Dr. E. W. Price, of the zoological division,collected a number of nematodes from the gizzard and proventriculiisof a bird {Rhea amerlcana) that had died at the National ZoologicalPark, Washington, D. C. The males of these nematodes are of par-ticular interest in that they possess remarkably long and slenderspicules, which are equal in length and similar in appearance. Asone of the diagnostic characters of the superfamily Spiruroidea isthe possession of dissimilar spicules, and as this nematode must go inthe Spiruroidea by virtue of its other characters, the definition ofthe superfamily will have to be emended to include this genus, theemendation covering the presence of either similar or dissimilarspicules. The definition of the family Spiruridae will also have tobe emended to include this character, as the new genus Odonto-spirura, herein described, belongs to that family.Family SPIRURIDAE Oerley, 1885Fmnily diagnosis.?Spiruroidea: Mouth usually with two largelateral lips. Esophagus long and cylindrical and divided into twoparts. Male with caudal alae well developed and supported bypedunculated papillae, of which there are usually four preanalpairs ; spicules usually dissimilar and unequal, sometimes similar andequal. Subfamily Spirurinae Railliet, 1915Subfamily diagnosis.?Spiruridae: Characters of the family.ODONTOSPIRURA, new genusGeneric diagnosis.?Spirurinae: Mouth opening surrounded bytwo large lateral lips and by two interlabia in the dorsal and ven-tral fields, respectively. Four pairs of cephalic papillae are presentin the submedian fields, the two most dorsal and the two most ventralof which are greatly reduced in size ; the papillae are near the baseNo. 2958.?Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 82. Art. 1715508S
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM VOL. 82
of the lips, while the amphids are on the lateral lips, at a levelslightly anterior to the papillae. At least one lateral ala may bepresent. Cervical papillae just posterior to nerve ring. Male withcaudal alae; spicules very long, equal or nearly equal in length, andsimilar. Caudal extremity pointed in both sexes. Gubernaculumpresent.Type sfecies.?Odontospirura cetiopenis, new species.ODONTOSPIRURA CETIOPENIS, new speciesFigures 1-3SpecifiG diagnosis.?Odontospirura: Body spirally coiled, some-times in the shape of a corkscrew. Only one lateral ala present, on
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Odontospirura cetiopenis, new species
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En face view of headleft side of body ; it can be distinctly traced for about two-thirds thelength of the body. Each of the lateral lips bears six conspicuousteeth on its inner edge.Male, 15 mm to 17 mm long by 500/i, wide in maximum width.Esophagus divided into two distinct parts, an anterior muscularpart 430/x long and a posterior glandular part 3.55 mm long. Nervering about 360)ut from anterior end of body. Cervical papillae 440jafrom anterior end of body. Head distinctly set off from rest of bodyby a constriction at the base of the lips. Mouth opens into a shortbuccal cavity, the length of which equals approximately the height ofthe head. Caudal alae supported by four pairs of preanal and twopairs of postanal pedunculate papillae; a pair of sessile papillae
ART. 17 A NEW NEMATODE FKOM THE EHEA WEHRis located about midway between the anal opening and the posteriorend of the body, and five or six other papillae, smaller in size andsessile, are to be seen near tiie posterior tip of the caudal alae.Spicules similar and very slender, equal or nearly equal in size, andabout 10 to 11 mm long, this length being unusual for nematodes ofthe size of these. In most of the male specimens that were exam-ined the spicules were extruded from the body for more than halftheir length, but in the type specimen one of the spicules remainediniprotruded from the bodj^ and could be seen to extend from nearthe posterior end of the esophagus to the cloacal opening. Guber-naculum present, 1.08 mm long, triangular in shape in ventral view.
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Figure 2.
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Odontosplrura cetiopcnis, new species : Ventral view ofmale tailFemale, 20 mm to 23 mm long by 572fi wide in maximum width.The anterior end of body of most of the preserved specimens isslightly coiled. Anterior muscular part of esophagus 472/^ long;posterior glandular part 3.6 mm long ; latter portion a little broaderthan former. Nerve ring about 363/x, from anterior end of body.Cervical papillae 44T/x from anterior end of body. Vulva about9.8 mm from anterior end of body. Anus prominent, 430/x fromposterior end of body. Caudal extremity abruptly narrowed justposterior to anal opening; from there it gradually narrows to a bluntpoint. Eggs embryonated, 46ju long by 17/a wide.Host.?Rh^a ainericana (Linnaeus).Location.?Proventri cuius and gizzard.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM VOL. 82Distribution.?National Zoological Park, Washington, D. C.Type specimen.?IJ.S.'^M. Helm. Coll. No. 27583.Remarks.?The presence of a dorsal and a ventral interlabium andtwo well-developed lateral lips, with the cephalic papillae situatednear the bases of the lips, and the character of the male tail placethis species definitely in the family Spiruridae. The possession ofa dorsal and a ventral interlabium, and of a short chitinous buccalcavity, and the position of the vulva near the middle region of thebody suggest its relation to the genus Habronema. The position ofthe cervical papillae, posterior to the nerve ring, and the lengthand character of the spicules of the male seem to warrant the erectionof a new genus for this species.
a o ! mmFigure 3.
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Odontospirura cetiopenia: a. Lateral view of head ; i, dorsal view ofheadCram (1927) lists two species of nematodes, Sphicra zschokkeiand S. unciiiipenis^ as being collected from the proventriculus ofRhea americana. The first species, which was called Spiroptera alataby Zschokke (1889), was later renamed Splrura zschokkei by Eaillietand Henry in 1911, on the basis that the original name was pre-occupied by Spiroptera alata Kudolphi, 1819. Unfortunately Zschokkefailed to give a complete description of this male specimen whichhe collected, as the number of caudal papillae and the length andcharacter of the spicules were not given. More unfortunate thanthis, perhaps, is the fact that he did not figure any portion of theworm. The much greater length of the male of S. zschokkei, asgiven by Zschokke in liis original description of this species, and
ART. 17 A NEW NEMATODE FEOM THE RHEA WEHRthe presence of two lateral alae, which extend the entire length ofthe body, and of four chitinous teeth surrounding the mouth cavitydifferentiate S. sschokkei and the species here described as new. Asregards jS. uncinipenis (Molin, 1860), which has been redescribedand placed in the genus Habronema by Walton (1927), the dissimilarand ver}^ unequal spicules of this species, the different number andarrangement of caudal papillae of the male, the differently shapedinterlabia, and other distinctions noted in an en face view of theheads readily separate it from the present species.LITERATURE CITEDCeAM, EL0ISE B.1927. Bird parasites of the nematode suborders Strongylata, Ascaridata,and Spirurata. U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 140, xvi+465 pp., 444 figs.Molin, R.1860. Una monografia del genera Spiroptera. Sitz. Akad. Wiss. Wien,math.-nat. Chisse, vol. 38, pp. 911-1005.Rah-liet, Alcide, and Henry, A.1911. Les helminthes du Naudou. Bull. Soc. Nat. d'Acclim. France, vol. 58,no. 17, pp. 538^41 ; no. 18. pp. 573-582, 6 figs.RUDOLPHI, CAKL AsMUND.1819. Entozoorum synopsis cui accedunt mantissa duplex et indices locu-pletissimi, x+Sll pp., 3 pis. Berlin.Walton, A. C.1927. A revision of the nematodes of the Leidy collections. Proc. Acad.Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 79, pp. 49-163.ZSCHOKKE, FBIEDRICH.1889. Spiroptera alata, ein neuer Nematode aus Rliea americana. Cen-tralb. fur Bakt., Parasit., und Infekt., vol. 5, no. 24, pp. 792-794,
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