It is well known that the ectoparasitic Arthropods often produce in their host various skin reactions such as macules, wheals and haemorrhages, which in many cases are due to the salivary secretion of these ectoparasites. Nuttall and Strickland (1908) were the first to find an anticoagulin (called “Ixodin” by Sabbatani) in the salivary glands and alimentary canal of Argas persicus. Bruck (1919) found that the organs of Culex contained a haemolytic- and urticaria-producing substance called by him “Culicin.” His study was not, however, precise, because he ground up the entire bodies of the gnats, thereby mixing up secretions, excretions and fragments of organs, some of which would never enter a wound in the process of blood sucking. Moreover, the urticaria following mosquito bite was found by Schaudinn to be due to the yeast present in the oesophageal diverticula of mosquito. Klausner (1916) states that the secretions of the salivary glands in Cimex are soluble in water and alcohol, are haemolytic and produce urticaria; he found also that they do not contain formic acid and that immunity to their effects is not acquired. Nuttall (1918) dealing with the effects of salivary glands of Phthirus on human skin states that the bluish spots of the skin are especially marked after biting of adult lice, that they have nothing to do with the blue spots in the fat body of the lice and that they are probably derived from the exuded and altered blood of man.

We examined a host system (Peromyscus maniculatus) in which a single autosomal gene controls susceptibility or resistance to infection by the cestode parasite Hymenolepis citelli. Parasite deaths of both primary and secondary (challenge) infections were examined, using a probabilistic model, to see if deaths were random and uncorrelated within each genotype. Within susceptible hosts, post-patent survival of primary worms was not random and heterogeneity was due to among-host effects rather than parasite-age effects, suggesting a second genetic or immunological process. Secondary infections in susceptible hosts appear to be lost randomly, independent of primary infection age or burden. The loss rate is similar to that for primary worms. The lack of correlation or alteration in (susceptible) host response to primary and secondary infections suggests that the latter are eliminated by a process that differs from that acting on primary worms. In resistant hosts, parasite survival rates suggest that the immunological process elicited by the primary infection also acts to eliminate the secondary infection more rapidly. Suggestions are made for improving experimental methods when dealing with mixed genotype populations. Experiments should permit direct estimation of genotype frequency and of parasite death rates within each genotype. This separation of host type is particularly important when studying correlation of successive worm burdens since any host or treatment mixture (genotype, age, sex, size or infection dose) may induce correlations that could be mistakenly interpreted.

In a literature search for species of Pterygosoma it has been my good fortune to find a figure and Japanese description of Pterygosoma japonicum Kishida, 1927, in Figuraro de Japanaj, Bestej Tokyo, 1927, Hokurykan and Co. Ltd. This species has not been listed by the Zoological Record, and indeed it seems to have been completely overlooked in the West. Hence this re-publication.

Mesophryxus, a new genus of phryxid isopod is described. The only species, M. ventralis, is a parasite of Harpiliopsis beaupresi (Audouin) to which it is attached on the ventral aspect of the sixth abdominal segment, behind the fifth pair of pleopods. Mesophryxus is most closely related to the genus Anomophryxus Shiino, from which it differs in the arrangement of appendages on the abdomen.

A new halarachnid mite, Zumptiella coreaensis, is described from female and male specimens obtained from the nasal cavities of the Korean squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris coreae, collected from Korea. A key to the species of the genus Zumptiella is presented.

At the present time Ankylostoma infection in man and disability resulting therefrom has aroused much concern. The geographical origin and present distribution of the two species of Ankylostoma known to be parasitic to man are of considerable interest, even though it be only academic. It is, therefore, probable that the following note may be worthy of publication.

No Worker on British Turbellaria having hitherto given any attention to parasitic species, I devoted the greater part of my visit to the Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association, Plymouth, Aug.–Sept. 1933, to the collection and investigation of these forms. The number discovered is small in proportion to the number of hosts examined. All but the last have been identified from von Graaf (1913), and all but the first and last are new to the British fauna.

1. Three species of flea were found on rats caught on the docks of Plymouth, England, namely, Nosopsyllus (Ceratophyllus) fasciatus, Xenopsylla cheopis, and Leptopsylla segnis (musculi).

2. The findings of Xenopsylla cheopis were almost entirely confined to a certain grain store, whence the flea was obtained constantly throughout the period of the investigation.

3. A few rats caught in the town of Plymouth yielded Leptopsylla segnis and Nosopsyllus fasciatus, but no Xenopsylla cheopis.

In January 1954 I received from Dr Harry Hoogstraal of the United States Naval Medical Research Unit no. 3, Cairo, Egypt, a collection of ticks for investigation. In the monograph of Nuttall, Warburton, Cooper & Robinson (1911) these specimens were run down to Ixodes ugandanus Neumann, but in view of the constant differences between them I recognize the present material as a new species. I assign the name hoogstraali to them in consideration of Harry Hoogstraal's kindness and generosity in supplying me with tick material. Unfortunately the entire collection consists of females.

In the blood of the above mammals there was found in varying proportions those enigmatical bodies recently described by Theiler as Protozoa under the name Anaplasma marginale, but more generally known as “marginal points” or “coccus-like bodiees.”

Larvae of Xenopsylla cheopis, which had been preserved at various dates from the first to seventeenth day after hatching, were placed at my disposal by Professor J. H. Ashworth. They were mounted for examination in excavated slides in carbol alcohol.

In the course of investigations on the Gregarines of Cirratulus (Audouinia) tentaculatus Mont., I have frequently noticed a large astomatous ciliate in the intestine. This appears to be Anoplophrya brasili described by Léger and Duboscq in 1904. One or two points, however, have led me to make a closer study of this organism, and I have come to the conclusion that it should be removed from the genus Anoplophrya.

I feel greatly honoured to have been asked to speak to you about Alphonse Laveran. Professor Garnham wondered if I had met Laveran and what was the State of his relations with Professor Emile Brumpt my father. I have known many Pastorians: Emile Roux, Mesnil, Marchoux, Roubaud, Charles Nicolle, but unfortunately not Laveran.

The new species of Amblyomma described in this paper was collected and forwarded to the author for identification by Mr J. H. Calaby, Wildlife Section, C.S.I.R.O. This is the fourth species of the genus to be recorded from Western Australia, the others being A. australiense Neumann, A. albolimbatum Neumann, and A. triguttatum Koch (Roberts, 1953).

The third-instar larval cuticles of Hypoderma bovis and H. diana and the puparial cuticle of H. bovis are described. The observations on and the descriptions of these cuticles are compared with the work of Enigk & Pfaff (1954) on H. bovis larval cuticle. The cuticles of the Hypoderma species are compared with the typical dipteran larval cuticle described by Dennell (1946) for Sarcophaga and found to approximate very closely to this basic pattern. In view of this it has been necessary to revise the terminology of the cuticular layers as originally described by Enigk & Pfaff for Hypoderma bovis. A description of the puparial cuticle and its specialized structure and the histological appearance of the pupal suture or line of weakness is given.

Part I of this paper, which dealt exclusively with the females, appeared in Parasitology, VIII. 262. After examining some dozens of dogfish each month for the previous three years I, at length, on April 2nd 1918 obtained from two separate dogfish caught during the preceding week at Plymouth, three females of Lernaeopoda scyllicola which were accompanied by males.

Infective Haemonchus contortus cayugensis larvae were harvested from faecal cultures, cleaned and stored at 4°C. By means of small sample runs, exsheathment rates were determined for batches of clean larvae prior to and during storage. The larvae were stimulated to exsheath at 40°C in 0·02 m-Na2B4O7. 10H2O into which a gas mixture of 40% CO2–60% N2 was bubbled. A 20 and 60 min exsheathing time produced some and no decrease in exsheathment rates respectively for freshly cleaned unstored larvae and larvae stored 1–12 weeks. In all instances there was a reduction in the exsheathment rate 24 h after the larvae were placed in cold storage. This was considered a result of a cold shock from which the larvae did not recover until after the fourth day.

Types. Four mature females (NM. 5728) from Myotis tricolor, Town Bush Cave, Pietermaritzburg, March 1952.