•Few cestodes have ever been described from amphibian hosts. Nematotaenia dispar (Goeze 1782) has been reported from Europe by Schmidt (1885), and by Fuhrmann (1895) ; and from America by Stiles and Hassall (1912; 277). Taenia pulchella Leidy 1851 was reported from America in Bufo americanus, at the time of its original description. Jewell (1916) described Cylindrotaenia mnericana from America in Acris gryllis, Rana pipiens, Rana virescens, and Bufo lentiginosus. These three species, together with two Proteocephalids, Ophiotaenia Jiylae from Australia, and O. schultsei from Africa (Johnston, 1912), constitute the species so far described from frogs and toads. Johnston (1916:194) reports the presence of a new species of Nematotaenia in Australia, which has not yet been described. Larval stages of Sparganum have been known to occur in European frogs, but nothing is known of the larval stages of any of the adult cestodes thus far reported in Anurans.Jewell (1916) has pointed out the discrepancies of Schmidt's description of Nematotaenia dispar (Schmidt 1855) as compared with the recognized, original form first described by Goeze (1782), and later by Fuhrmann (1895). It is probable that Schmidt's material was not Nematotaenia dispar, since he describes the worm as having a neck, with the greatest diameter at the posterior end, and an oval cirrus sac about twice as long as it is broad. Fuhrmann's description includes a worrh devoid of a neck, the greatest diameter of the strobila being at the anterior end, with the cirrus sac about ten times as long as broad.Liihe ( 1899 : 526) proposed the genus Nematotaenia, to contain Taenia dispar Goeze. His first characterization of the new genus, however, appears in ^ later paper (Liihe 1910), as follows: "Taenien mit unbewaffnetem Scolex, ohne Rostellem, mit drehrundem Korper, der in seinem vorderen Abschnitt etwas dicker ist und nach hinten allmahlich diinner und schliesslich fadenformig wird. Gliederung nur am Hinterende ausgesprochen, wo sich die reifen Proglottiden, die we.sentlich langer als breit sind, einzeln ablosen, um dann lebhaft beweglich noch langere Zeit weiterzuleben. Gesclechtsoffnungen randstandig, unregelmassig abwechselnd. Hoden in der Zweizahl, dorsal und annahernd symmetrisch. Dotterstock fast genau in der Achse * Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Illinois No. 177.
