Dr. Éva Murai szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 4. 1987 (Budapest, 1987)

Raina, M. K., Sey, O.; Khan, M. D.: Paramphistomes (Trematoda: Amphistomida) of domestic ruminants in Kashmir, India

The oesophagus is moderately long and with thick muscular walls. Posterior bulbous expansion or shincter is absent. Testes are median, lobed and tandem. O. indonesiense is being repoted for the first time from Kashmir and India. Olveria indica Thapar et Sinha, 1945 (Figs 14 and 15) The least common paramphistome observed in the present collection was O. indica from the rumen of a buffalo. It has an Olveria type (new type) of pharynx, characterised by a very short but wide pharynx with two fused pharyngeal pouches. Lip, anterior and posterior sphincters are absent. The musculature of the pharynx is weakly developed in comparison to other types. The internal circular muscles form a single row and the middle circular layer is weakly developed and not visible in some sections, the internal layer is reduced. The outer longitudinal layer is comparatively better developed than the internal layer. A few papillae are present in the anterior region of the pharynx. Basal circular muscles were not seen, radial fibres are very well developed. The most characteristic feature of this type is that the oesophagus is over-four to six times longer than the pharynx and is typically J-shaped. It is very wide anteriorly and narrows down slowly towards the posterior end. Its walls are very thick, almost with the same thickness as that of the pharynx. Posterior pharyngeal sphincter is absent. The acetabulum is of the Streptocoelium type (Fig. 15) with various circular muscle units as: D. E. C. = 15-20; D.I. C. = 30-35; V.E.C.= 10-15; V. I. C. = 30-35 and M. E. C. ~ 8-12. Testes are tandem or slightly oblique and the genital pore is located in the anterior third of the oesophageal level. Genital terminalia are of the Olveria type (new type) characterised by the absence of a ventral fold, ventral sphincter and ventral atrium; presence of a well developed and terminally broad genital papilla (Fig. 14), moderately developed genital fold; well developed genital sphincter and continuous almost compact sphincter papillae extending nearly up to the genital sphincter and a short distance into the genital papilla. The external surface of the genital fold bears integumentary papillae. This present form resembles the Streptocoelium type but the genital papilla is very broad terminally and the genital fold bears a few integumentary papillae. From the papillogenitalis type the present type can be differentiated by a strong genital sphincter and almost continuous sphincter papillae. The integumentary papillae are not as well developed and numerous as in the papillogenitalis type. O. indica was originally proposed by THAPAR and SINHA (1945) but they did not describe its histomorphological details. They based their description mostly on the gross morphological characters. They report the pharynx to be absent and instead call it oral sucker and oral pouches but now it is a universally accepted fact that the anterior muscular organ in the paramphistomes represents pharynx. Hence we refer to the anterior muscular organ as pharynx and its pouches as pharyngeal pouches. Two more species, namely, O. bosi Tandon, 19 51 and O. thapari Bali et Fotedar, 1973 have been reported from Lucknow and Kashmir, respectively. Both these species seem to have been created on flimsy grounds. No histomorphological details of the muscular organs have been studied or given by their respective authors. In the opinion of the present authors, these two species in question seem to be only synonyms of O. indica but further study of the type material and histological investigations are needed to confirm the above statement. Gastrothylax crumenifer (Creplin, 1847) G. crumenifer has a Gastrothylax type of acetabulum (Sensu SEY, 1983) and pharynx (Sensu NÄSMARK, 1937) and Gracile type of genital terminalia. The number of acetabular circular muscles is very large. This species was reported from sheep in Kashmir by BALI (1976) but in the present investigation it was collected from all the domestic ruminants studied. It is comparatively less common than G. compressus. Gastrothylax compressus Brandes, 1898 (Figs 16-18) This species is the most common in our collection and was present in 32 samples. It is characterised by the presence of a Gastrothylax type of pharynx (Fig. 16) and a Carmyerius