Some Parasitic Worms in Freshwater Fishes and Fish-Predators from the Transvaal, South Africa

Abstract

This report concerns a collection of parasitic worms from South Africa, and contains a new species of monogenean, Gyrodactylus transvaalensis, six species of adult trematodes, including a new species of Phyllodistomum.P. van der waali, two metacercariae of the Family Clinostomidae and three of the Order Strigeida, as well as two species of cestodes, and larvae of the nematode genus Contracaecum. The adults of previously-known helminths are redescribed, with some remarks on their systematics and biology. Accompanying the material of the new gyrodactylid monogenean there is a specimen which is thought to be a giant of the new form, and this appears to be the first recorded suggestion of the occurrence of gigantism in the Monogenea, and in fact in any kind of helminth.