Description of Trichospirura willmottae n. sp. parasite of the salivary ducts of Tupaia glis and T. sp. (single virgin female) parasite of the intestine of Myotis mystacinus in Malaysia. The two species are very closely related to the type species, a parasite of the pancreatic ducts of brasilian Primates, and can be differentiated mainly by the mensurations of the posterior extremities of the bodies. While the genus Rhabdochoma, parasite of the intestine of fresh-water fishes, underwent a very similar, but more or less pronounced, morphological evolution, it became adapted to many different hosts: Sea-fishes, Saurians, Mammals and to many locations. This evolutionary line includes six genera; Trichospirura, the only parasite in Mammals, is one of the more evolved. Some remarks are made on the host-distribution of Trichospirura, on the relationships between Rabdochonidae and Cystidicolidae and on the osmo-excretory apparatus of Trichospirura. The hypertrophy of this apparatus, which could be the consequence of the passage during the course of evolution from aquatic to terrestrial life, is comparable to that of the Pneumospirurinae.
Morphological study of two Spirura parasites of the oesophageal and the gastric wall of Tupaia and Nycticebus in Malaysia. -- Spirura malayensis n. sp. is found both in Tupaia in the District of Selangor (West Malaysia) and in Nycticebus coucang in Borneo. Its very primitive characteristics relate it to S. diplocyphos Chabaud, Brygoo and Petter, 1965, parasite of lemurs from Madagascar. Its larval development was obtained experimentally in Blatella germanica. -- Spirura aurangabadensis (Ali and Lovekar, 1966) described from a microchiroptera in India is found in west Malaysia in a Nycticebus coucang, and in a Tupaia glis. -- The distribution of the different species and the comparative study of the larval and adult cephalic structures show that the genus Spirura arose and became diversified in the old world in very primitive hosts according to two main evolutive lines.
The recovery of six adult Gnathostoma spinigerum Owen, 1936 from a civet cat, Prionodon linsang Hardwick, constitutes the second reported record of this parasite and the first authenticated case of adult worms found in a wild animal from Malaysia. The food habits of the infected P. linsang as an important link in the transmission of G. spinigerum in the intermediate and definitive hosts together with the probable distribution of this parasite are discussed.
Sera taken fortnightly from fourteen patients with eosinophilic lung (tropical eosinophilia) were tested by complement fixation with ethanol extracts of Dirofilaria immitis, Ascaris lumbricoides, Toxocara canis, Gnathostoma procyonis, Fasciola gigantica and Dipylidium caninum. Initially, sera from ten patients had high antibody titers with each of the extracts while antibodies were not detected in sera from the other four; after treatment with diethylcarbamazine the high titers decreased. It is concluded that the reactions obtained with these various extracts do not indicate infection with any particular helminth.