ASCARIDIA LINEATA, A PARASITE OF CHICKENS IN THE UNITED STATES1 By BENJAMIN SCHWARTZ Zoological Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture INTRODUCTION male specimens from the turkey, and, in common with specific diagnoses of a Heretofore it has been assumed that century ago, contains little that is of the large intestinal roundworm of diagnostic value. According to Dujar- chickens in the United States is As- din (3) A. perspicillum of Rudolphi is caridia perspicillum, a species described apparently identical with Fusaria in- from the intestine of turkevs bv Rudol- flexa of Zeder. Dujardin {3) states that ph! in 1803 (leí).2 A recent study by the entries in the catalogue of the the present writer of specimens of Vienna Museum, whose helminthologi- Ascaridia collected at various times cal collections were studied by Rudolphi, from the intestine of chickens, in and contain no reference to A. inflexa from around Washington, D. C, in New chickens, this species being recorded Jersey, Kansas, and in several other only from ducks. Dujardin also states localities, has shown that the species that the catalogue in question contains in question does not conform to the but a single entry of A. perspicillum description of A. perspicillum as given from the turkey. by various writers, but conforms in Schneider (13), in his extensive mon- practically all respects to the descrip- ograph on nematodes, states that he tion of another species, namely, A. examined one male and one female linéala, which was described bv Schnei- specimen of Heterakis perspicillum and der in 1866 (13). found them to be identical with H. in- These two species have undoubtedly flexa, of which he also examined speci- been confused in the past, partly owing mens. In both cases the material ex- to their close relationship, and partly amined appears to have been material because the tendency of most workers studied by Rudolphi. Although who are not systematists is to make Schneider was unable to make out the host determinations of parasites. The structure of the lips in the specimens fact that A. perspicillum is an earlier labeled A scans perspicillum, he had no described species and that its type difficulty in making out the papillae locality is Europe is probably largely on the tail of the male, which he foiind responsible for the importance that has to correspond to those of A. inflexa. been assigned to it in textbooks on Since the papillae on the tail of the male parasitology, whereas A. lineata, which are commonly regarded as the most was originally described from Brazil, important specific characters in the has received but secondary considera- suckered roundworms (Heterakidae), tion in the widely used textbooks on it may be taken for granted that Schnei- parasitology, nearly all of which have der was correct in regarding A. perspi- been written by European workers. cillum and A. inflexa as identical. As will be presently shown, A. lineata is Schneider figures 9 pairs of papillae not only more prevalent then A. per- on the tail of the male of Heterakis in- spicillum in the United States and in all flexa (fig. 1), arranged as follows: 3 probability in other parts of the world, pairs of ventral papillae arranged in a but is also possibly the only species of row on each side of the sucker, the most Ascaridia parasitic in chickens in this cephalad papillae being anterior to, and country, the occurrence of A. perspicil- the third, or most caudal pair, being lum in American chickens not yet hav- posterior to the sucker, whereas the ing been definitely established. middle pair corresponds in position ap- proximately to the equator of the ASCARIDIA PERSPICILLUM (RU- sucker. The next group consists of 4 DOLPHI, 1803) pairs of papillae, of which 3 pairs are lateral and 1 pair is ventral, and finally, Rudolphi's description of ^.scan's there are 2 pairs of lateral papillae near perspicillum is based on immature fe- the tip of the tail. 1 Received for publication June 30,1924; issued June, 1925. 2 Reference is made by number (italic) to " Literature cited/ p.772. Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XXX, No. 8 Washington, D. C. Apr. 15, 1925 Key No. A-89 (763) 764 Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. XXX, No. 8 Recently Ascaridia perspicillum has been figured by Bavlis and Daubney (1) (fig. 2) and by Smit (15) (fig. 3). According to the former, there are 10 pairs of papillae on the tail of the male, the first group consisting of 4 pairs of ventral papillae, instead of 3 pairs as figured by Schneider, the remaining FIG. 1.—Heterakis inflexa (after papillae agreeing as to number and Schneider, 1866) position with those of Schneider. The views expressed by Du jardin Smit, on the other hand, while agreeing (8) and Schneider (18) as regards the with Bavlis and Daubney as to the specific indentity of Áscaridia inflexa number of papillae, shows a somewhat and A. perspicillum have been generally different mode of arrangement, since accepted by helminthologists, includ- he figures 2 ventral and 3 lateral pairs ing Railliet (10), who states that this of papillae in the second group, as species has 10 pairs of papillae, but compared with 3 pairs of lateral and makes no statement as to their arrange- only 1 pair of ventral as figured by ment, excepting that 3 pairs are preanal Schneider and by Bavlis and Daubney. and 7 pairs are postanal. Railliet and The remaining papillae as figured by Henry (11), in their paper on the Smit correspond to those figured by classification of the Heterakidae, list Schneider. A. perspicillum as being possibly The different conceptions as to the identical with A. inflexa, a similar number and arrangement of the papil- attitude of uncertainty being expressed lae of Ascaridia perspicillum may be by Skrjabin (14). summarized as follows: Schneider Baylis and Daubney Smit Group 1 3 pairs of ventral papillae 4 pairs of ventral papillae 3 pairs of ventral papillae. Group 2 3 pairs of lateral papillae 3 pairs of lateral papillae 3 pairs of lateral papillae. 1 pair of ventral papillae 1 pair of ventral papillae 2 pairs of ventral papillae. Group 3. 2 pairs of lateral papillae 2 pairs of lateral papillae 2 pairs of lateral papillae. number of ventral papillae in the an- terior two groups showing variations. Whether the species in question (As- oö m m FIG. 2.—Ascaridia perspicillum. (After Baylis and Daubney, 1922) Assuming that Schneider, Baylis and Daubney, and Smit were dealing with the same species, it will be seen from the comparison of their descriptions of the papillae that they all agree as to the presence of only two lateral papillae FIG. 3.—Ascaridia perspicillum. (After Smit, in the region of the tip of the tail, the 1922) Api. is, 1925 Ascaridia linéala, a Parasite of Chickens 765 caridia perspicillum) is variable with ment of the papillae as figured by Von respect to the ventral papillae, or Linstow correspond accurately with whether under the name Ascaridia those of Schneider, although there are perspicillum two or more species have two discrepancies, namely, as regards been confused, must be left an open the elongation of the first ventral question. So far as concerns the papilla, which is figured as transversely arrangement of the papillae on the tail flattened by Von Linstow (fig. 5), of the male in specimens of Ascaridia whereas Schneider figures it as spherical from chickens in the United States and in shape. As regards the second from other localities that have been lateral papilla, Von Linstow figures it examined by the present writer, they do as directed laterally, whereas Schneider not correspond to any of the patterns figures it as directed ventrally. described for A. perspicillum, but agree with that of another species, namely, A. lineata. ASCARIDIA LINEATA (SCHNEIDER, 1866) Schneider (13) describes Heterakis lineata from the intestine of the chicken from Brazil in the same paper in which he discusses the identity of Heterakis perspicillum and H. inflexa. Schneider differentiates //. inflexa (H. perspicil- lum) from H. lineata on the basis of the structure of the lips as well as on the basis of the number of papillae on the tail of the male. He states that H. inflexa has 3 dentigerous ridges on each lip, the first 2 being round and the FIG. 5.—Heterakis lineata (after Von Linstow, 1883) third (most posterior) being quad- rangular, whereas H. lineata, according Von Linstow (8) records Heterakis to this writer, has only 2 dentigerous inflexa from the chicken, but from ridges, the second ridge being very his description of the papillae, in which small. As far as concerns the papillae 3 pairs are enumerated in the region on the tail of the male, Schneider of the tip of the tail, 2 being lateral figures 10 papillae for H. lineata and 1 ventral, it may be taken for (fig. 4), the last group of papillae in the granted that he was dealing with region of the tip of the tail consisting Ascaridia lineata. of 3 pairs, 2 lateral and 1 ventral, as Wolffhügel (18) records Heterakis compared with only 2 pairs of lateral lineata from Switzerland from the papillae in H. inflexa. The remaining chicken and the duck, but he records papillae, according to Schneider's fig- H. inflexa (Ascaridia perspicillum) ure, correspond in number and posi- only from the grouse (Tetrao urogallus). tion to those of H. inflexa. Travassos (16) records and figures Ascaridia lineata from chickens in Brazil, the type locality of this species. His drawing of the tail of the male (fig. 6) shows a perfect agreement with that of Von Linstow (fig.