PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM Issued SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION U, S. NATIONAL MUSEUM Vol. 90 Washington: 1941 No. 3112 CESTODE PARASITES OF TELEOST FISHES OF THE WOODS HOLE REGION, MASSACHUSETTS By Edwin Linton^ Only those cestodes that pass their adult stage in teleosts are considered in this report. For records of encysted and larval stages of cestodes whose final host is a selachian, see a previous paper of mine.^ While the encysted stage of selachian cestodes is found in both teleosts and selachians, the encysted stage of teleost cestodes has not been found in selachians. In a few instances teleost cestodes have been found in the stomachs of selachians, but the evidence in such cases pointed to their recent introduction with the food, and the usually more or less macerated condition of the strobilae showed that the selachian could not be regarded as the true fmal host. The cestodes of selachian habitats belong to widely different family groups from those passing the adult stage in teleosts. Further, so far at least as their mature cestode parasites may be considered to figure, the groups of selachians and teleosts are as distinct from each other as either of them is distinct from the other classes of vertebrates. This account is based on collections of the late Vinal N. Edwards, of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, which were made in each month of the year for many years, and upon collections made by me in the summer months over a long series of years at the Woods Hole laboratory of the Bureau of Fisheries. The authority for the scientific names of fishes used is Jordan, Evermann, and Clark's check list.^ • Died June 3, 1939. > Notes on cestode parasites of sharks and skates. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 04, art. 21, pp. 1-114, pis. 1-13, 1924. > Check list of the fishes and fishlike vertebrates of North and Middle America north of the northern boundary of Venezuela and Colombia. Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish, for 1928, pt. 2, 670 pp., 1930. 292965—41 1 417
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