Specimens of Dujardinia exhibited

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 24, 1891, Page 714

Professor Parker exhibited a species of Branchellion, a leech with external gills, belonging to the family Rhynchobdellidæ, and occurring as an external parasite on the common skate (Raja nasuta). A single specimen had been found some years previously, but on the present occasion a skate dissected in the Biological Laboratory presented a colony of thirty or forty of the parasites on an area of 3in. or 4in. in circumference. They varied in length from ¼in. to 1 ½in., and were all so firmly attached by the posterior sucker that on their removal the fish's skin presented a number of smooth, circular, convex areas. The smaller specimens, treated with Flemming's chrom. osm. acetic solution, flattened under a compressor, and mounted entire, make very beautiful microscopic objects. The only species of this interesting genus mentioned in the ordinary works of reference is R. torpedinis, of Europe, a parasite on the torpedo. If the present form turns out to be new, it might be called R. rajæ. Professor Parker also exhibited specimens of Dujardinia, a polychætous worm, from Port Chalmers.