COTUGNIA BHALERAOI N. SP.
By S. VAITHIANATHA MUDALIAR, G.M.V.C., Lecturer in Parasitology, Madras Veterinary College,
Madras
(Received for publication on 6 October 1942)
(With two text-figures)
SPECIMENS of this tapeworm were recently
collected on two occasions from (Gallus gallus
domesticus) a black minorca hen and a light
sussex chicken. The unusually large size of the
worm attracted the notice of the author who,
after a careful study, found it to be a species of
Cotugnia, unrecorded so far. A description of the
parasite is given below.
The maximum length of the worm is 110 mm.
and the maximum width 10 mm. The scolex
(Fig. 1) is a little broader than long and measures
0.8 mm. in length and 1.0 mm. in width. No
distinct neck can be distinguished, the strobila
appearing attached directly to the scolex. All the
segments are broader than long. The suckers
are roughly circular in outline and measure 0.4
mm. across. The rostellum is very much smaller
than the sucker, being delved into the anterior
end of the scolex and encloses an elliptic area,
measuring 0.19 × 0.09 mm. A large number of
T-shaped hooks, 0.009 mm. long, fringe the
ostellum in two rows.
FIG. 1
The sexual primordia are seen to begin a few
segments from the scolex and a mature segment
measures 0.95 mm. long and 2.71 mm. broad.
The maximum width reached at the posterior end
is 10.0 mm. Only one excretory canal is visible
on either side and the genital ducts pass dorsally
to this.
Each segment (Fig. 2) has two sets of genitalia
and the genital pore opens at about the middle of
the segment, laterally. The testes, about forty
in number, spread across the width of the segment
and behind the middle, and extend to a little
beyond the excretory vessel on either side. The
ovary is disposed in thick follicles, arranged
symmetrically, in front of the vitelline glands
and measure 0.25 × 0.20 mm. The vitellaria
consist of two to three pyriform lobes and lie in
close apposition with and posterior to the ovary
The cirrus sac is long, spindle-shaped, being
narrowed at both ends and extends up to the
excretory canal. The cirrus is unarmed and conti-
nued inwardly into the vas deferens which is
thrown into a number of folds at its junction with
the cirrus. The vagina is straight or slightly
wavy and placed ventrally, behind the cirrus.
The common opening of the vagina and cirrus is
not demarcated by a well-developed genital
atrium. The vagina is continued into a fusiform
receptaculum seminis, measuring 0.19 mm. in
length and lying transversely and dorsally to the
excretory vessel on either side. The uterus is
not persistent and the whole segment transforms
itself into a receptacle for ova which appear
buried in the parenchyme, in no regular order.
DISCUSSION
Soutwell [1930] in his key for the species of
Cotugnia has included only one parasite Cotugnia
margareta Beddard, 1916 on the basis of its having
a rostellum much smaller than the suckers. The
parasite under consideration resembles this in
this respect but differs from it in other respects.
The points of difference present in the parasite
under consideration are its larger sized hooks,
having a T-shape, the presence of a single pair
of excretory canal, the contiguity of the vagina
with the receptaculum seminis and the longer
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