On Three New Proteocephalids (Cestoda) and a Revision of the Genera of the Family

Abstract

When La Rue (1914 a) published his exhaustive monograph on the Proteocephalidae, all the then-known species of this family were, with one exception, shown to be very much alike. To substantiate this statement it will suffice to mention that all the six genera, into which La Rue grouped the species, were chiefly based upon trivial characters of the scolex and the distribution of the testes. The one exception referred to was the species which he re-named Monticellia coryphicephala (Monticelli), and this species differed from all the others in the remarkable and relatively deep-seated character of its principal genital organs being situated in the cortical region of the parenchyma instead of in the medullary. This one exception was promptly transferred by La Rue to a distinct new family, the Monticellidae, and the consequence was that he was still left dependent upon the aforesaid trivial characters as bases for his genera in the original family. Since 1914 however we have come to know of some other Proteocephalids exhibiting similar deep-seated differences of structure, and we are therefore in a position to re-consider the classification of the Proteocephalidae on broader lines, including Monticellia coryphicephala in that family. The general scheme of this re-classification I have already outlined in a paper (Woodland, 1925 a) which will be published either before or shortly after the present communication, and it is my purpose, in this latter, to justify the suggestions there referred to by discussing the subject in some detail. Before attempting this, however, I shall describe the structure of three new Proteocephalids, two from India (in a frog and a Varanid lizard) and one from the Sudan (in a Siluroid fish).