Dr. Holló Ferenc - Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 5. (Budapest, 1972)
se after several thorough washings in distilled water and wholly cleaned from impurities /rumen contents, vegetable parts etc./. Under these circumstances, 85-90 per cent of the eggs hatched. WILLMOTT /lid52/ found, in incubation experiments with Paramphistomum hibernae eggs, that within some days they shrank in too much water,or in water not containing vegetable matters. No similar phenomens were observed in the egg cultures used and incubated as mentioned above. In the literature /BENNETT, 1936; DINNIK, 1958; LENGY, 1960/ observations differ concerning the colour of eggs: from milk white to yellow and brown. According to MADHAVT /1966/, certain species of Paramphistomidae / Paramphistomum cervi , Dip- lodiscus mehrai etc./ posses the remarkable feature of having a colourless eggshell at every stage of development. Consequently, the egg colour derives from the vitelline cells which - according to our observation - are greenish yellow. Importance is attached to egg colour as a more reliable characteristic to distinguish it from the brownish yellow eggs, of similar size and frequent occurrence, of Fasciola hepatica in cattle than the position of the embryo in the egg /DINNIK, 1958/. The inner structure of the miracidium shows great similarities not only to that of other species in the Paramphistomidae, but also to the whole amphistoma group. The differences lie, however, in the number of the penetratorion glands: in the case of Giganthocotyle explanatum there are two such glands,and four in the other examined amphistomum species; as to the epidermal cell number and arrangements, the formula 6:8:4:2, characterizing the amphistoma /as stated by BENNETT, 1936/, is exceptional for P. cervi /6:6:3:4:2, SINITSIN's data/ and also in connection with Diplodiscus subclavatus /our observation/where the epidermal cells take up a position according to the formula 6:6:4:2 / photo 20 /. It should be mentioned that DINNIK /1961/ found two granulated protoplasmic masses in the cavity of the miracidium of P. phillerouxi.
