Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2009
The intestine of the Echiuroid worm, Thalassema neptuni Gärtner, is occasionally found at Plymouth to be infected with a small parasitic ciliate. I have searched the literature on the anatomy of Thalassema, but have been unable to find any reference to this Protozoon. In fact, I have not as yet come across any record of ciliates infesting the Gephyrea, though Mr. Dobell has informed me that, some years ago, the late Professor Ikeda mentioned to him the presence of ciliates from some of the Gephyrea he was then studying; but I have not been able to find any reference to ciliates in Ikeda's papers on Japanese Gephyrea. Lankester (1881), in a paper on Thalassema, merely records the occurrence of a gregarine which I also have observed in a number of specimens from the neighbourhood of Plymouth. I am, therefore, led to the conclusion that this ciliate must be new, and I have decided to name it Ptyssostoma thalassemæ nov. gen., nov. sp.