 Reference Base  On the Taenia of the rhinoceros of the Sunderbunds (Plagi... |
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Garrod, A.H., 1877. On the Taenia of the rhinoceros of the Sunderbunds (Plagiotaenia gigantea, Peters). Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1877 November 20: 788-789, fig. 1
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| Location: |
World |
| Subject: |
Diseases - Parasites |
| Species: |
Javan Rhino |
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Taenia gigantea. In 1856 Dr. Wm. Peters (Monatsb.der Akad. der Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1856, p. 469) described a tapeworm which he found in an African Rhinoceros from Mossambique, which he named Taenia gigantea. In 1870' Dr. Murie (PZS 1870, p. 608) described the adult proglottides of a tapeworm passed by an Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) living in the Society's Gardens at the time, which he named Taenia magna ?. In 1871 Dr. Peters communicated to the Society a note on the results of a comparison of his specimens of Tania gigantea with Dr. Murie's description and figures of his Taenia magna ?, showing their identity, and suggesting the generic name Plagiotaenia for the species.
During this summer I have had the opportunity of eviscerating a half-grown female of Rhinoceros sondaicus, from the Sunderbunds, which had been a little more than six months in this country. In the commencement of the colon I found three tapeworms with their heads (scoleces), together with several detached groups of proglottides, these latter being quite undistinguishable from those figured by Dr. Murie, in form as well as size.
Dr. Peters has figured the scolex in his species, which is evidently in a powerfully contracted condition, to which one of my three specimens closely approaches. My other two specimens are not so, and, as a result, differ so much in appearance that I subjoin a figure of one of them. Of the specimen here figured the breadth (after being kept in alcohol) of the scolex, opposite the suckers, is 4 millimetres, whilst the depth, to the lower of the two more strongly marked transverse lines below the suckers (the proliferating area), is 3 millimetres. The breadth of the largest of the proglottides is 3.1 centimetres, their depth being 4.5 millimetres. One decimetre from the end of the scolex the proglottides are 1.42 centimetre in breadth.
In one respect the scolex differs from that described by Dr. Peters, the rostellum or little conical elevation between the suckers being scarcely even indicated as such. This, however, seems hardly sufficient to justify specific separation.
It is an interesting fact that three different species of Rhinoceros, so separated in their distribution, should be troubled with the same tapeworm, which must therefore, unvarying, have followed the an- cestral species in its different variations, now so easily distinguishable.
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