Davainea madagascariensis is a rather rare human parasite, there being less than a dozen cases on record. It was originally described from children in the Comoro Islands by Davaine in 1869 under the name Taenia madagascariensis and has since been recorded from a wider area stretching from Madagascar and the neighbouring islands through Siam to the Philippine Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Recently some cestode segments were sent to Dr. R. T. Leiper, C.M.G., F.R.S. They had been passed in the stool of a human patient in S.E. Africa. They have now been identified as gravid segments of Davainea madagascariensis and this would seem to be the first record of the species from the mainland of Africa.