PART VII (EDENTATA).

The entozoa of the edentulate mammals are not very numerous. So far as I am aware only one species has been described from the scaly ant-eaters (_Manidæ_). This is the small and probably immature ascaris noticed by Whitefield in the walls of the stomach of the badgareit or short-tailed pangolin (_Manis pentadactyla_). Amongst the true ant-eaters (_Myrmecophagidæ_) a single round worm has also been observed, but not adequately described. I allude to Marcgrav’s “find” in the little ant-eater (_Myrmecophaga didactyla_). I observe that Rudolphi distinctly refers to this edentate as the tamandua. Diesing does the same. The ant-eaters are much infested by a thorn-headed worm (_Echinorhynchus echinodiscus_). On the 1st November, 1875, I received from Prof. Flower a jar labelled as follows: “Entozoon found attached to intestine of tamandua ant-eater.” The parasite was procured from the society’s gardens on August 12th, 1871. Natterer originally obtained this worm from _Myrmecophaga jubata_ and _M. bivittata_. Croplin described it from a _M. didactyla_ from Surinam (‘Wiegmann’s Archiv,’ 1849). I presume that _M. tamandua_ answers to the _M. bivittata_ of Geoffroy, as well as to the tridactyle and tetradactyle species of Linnæus. The parasite in question was a female, measuring exactly 10 inches long, and had its proboscis firmly anchored within the gut. The armadillos (_Dasypidæ_) entertain a variety of nematodes. In 1858 I obtained several examples of _Ascaris retusa_ from the rectum of a poyou or weasel-headed armadillo (_Dasypus sexcinctus_). The worm was first procured by Natterer from the black armadillo (_D. peba_), which host also harbors _Pentastoma subcylindricum_. According to the “finds” of Natterer and the subsequent descriptions by Diesing, the two most common helminths of the Brazilian armadillos are _Aspidocephalus scoleciformis_ and _Trichocephalus subspiralis_. As regards the sloths (_Bradypidæ_) it would seem that they are particularly liable to entertain round worms. The Ai (_Bradypus tridactylus_) is infested by _Strongylus leptocephalus_, _Spiroptera gracilis_, _Sp. anterohelicina_, and _Sp. brachystoma_; whilst the unau (_Cholœpus didactylus_) harbors the last-named species and also _Sp. spiralis_. All these worms have been described by Molin, and, with the exception of the two first named, were new to science when he wrote his well-known monograph on the genus. They were collected by Natterer. All the species infest either the stomach or intestines, with the exception of _Sp. spiralis_. This singular worm, like the closely allied _Sp. helicina_, infesting the feet of birds, has the habit of coiling itself amongst the tendons of the digits of the hind limbs more especially.

BIBLIOGRAPHY (No. 48).--_Cobbold_, “On some new Forms of Entozoa,” ‘Linn. Trans.,’ vol. xxii, p. 365, 1859.--_Idem_, “List of Entozoa,” &c., ‘Proc. Zool. Soc.,’ March 26, 1861.--_Idem_, “Notes on Entozoa,”