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FREE-LIVING NEMATODES FROM HOT SPRINGS IN CHINA AND FORMOSA.*
by
R. HOEPPLI and H. J. Ch.
The following pages report the results of an examinaton for free- living nematodes of a number of hot springs in China and Formosa. The senior author had carried out in 1925 a similar examination of various hot springs in Yellowstone Park, U.S.A. (Hoeppli, 1926). The present study was undertaken in order to compare the nematode fauna of thermal waters in the Far East with that of America. Generally speaking, very little is known of free-living nematodes of hot springs and as far as our knowledge goes nobody has previously examined the hot springs of China in this respect.
From the following localities free-living nematodes inhabiting thermal water have been reported:
Ragaz, Switzerland (Hofmänner and Menzel, 1914), outlet of thermal water, temperature of the water in summer time 25° C.- Mononchus brachyuris.
Nauheim, Germany (v. Linstow, 1901), saline water,
32° C.-Chromadora salinarum,
temperature
Montegrotto near Padua, Italy (v. Linstow, 1901), water temperature
40-45° C-Dorylaimus atratus.
Yellowtsone Park, U.S.A. (Hocppli, 1926).
Yellowstone Valley Hot Springs, water temperature about 53° C. Hot pool near Castle Geyser, water temperature 38° C.
Hot pool one mile from Old Faithful Geyser, water temperature
4+
40° C.—Dorylaimus thermæ.
Soda Spring," water temperature 30.5° C.-Mononchus
macrostoma.
Mud Volcano" overflow, water temperature 25-30° C.-
Chronogaster gracilis.
Apart from the forms just mentioned which live in warm water the following species have been found by the senior author in Yellowstone Park in thermal water which had cooled off almost to atmospheric temperature: Mononchus brachyuris Bütschli var. macrodenticulatus Micoletzky; Plectus parvus Bastian 1865; Plectus paracommúnis Hoeppli, 1926; Trilobus allophysis (Steiner), 1919; Aphelenchus parietinus Bastian 1865; Diplogaster macrurus Hoeppli, 1926; Microlaimus (Microlaimoides) setosus Hoeppli, 1926; Chroma- dora nanna Hoeppli, 1926.
There exists a great number of hot springs in China and Japan and it is obvious that the few samples which have been collected by us for the purpose of the present study can form only a very small contribution to the knowledge of the nematodes inhabiting the thermal waters of the Far East. Nevertheless, our examination gave the interesting result that certain nematode species occur in springs geographically far away from each other and that out of the great variety of free-living nematodes there is evidently a certain group only which has specific representatives in the hot springs.
* Contribution from the Division of Parasitology, Department of Pathology, Peiping Union Medical College, Peiping, and from the Summer Institute of the Marine Biological Association of China at the University of Amoy, Amoy.
Supplement No. 1, 1932.
93
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