Abstract
IN 1910 (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, Bull. 125) Dr. Maurice C. Hall published a most interesting historical account of the gid parasite, a cestode worm which is exceedingly destructive to sheep. He showed that the first available specific name for the worm was Taenia multiceps of Leske, 1780. At the same time he rejected the familiar name Coenurus of Rudolphi because Goeze in 1782 had said that the parasite might be called “Vielkopf (multiceps)”. I protested at the time to Dr. Hall that “multiceps” could scarcely be taken as a valid generic name. Goeze was not a binomial writer; he actually called the gid parasite Taenia vesicularis cerebrina. Multiceps seems to have been introduced simply as the Latin form of the common name proposed, vielkopf. Now, after the passage of years, I again have occasion to refer to the gid parasite and I find no ground for altering my opinion. Apparently the animal should be called Coenurus multiceps (Leske). The matter is important, on account of the injuries caused by the parasite, and consequent frequent references to it. I observe that Railliet and Henry (1915) and Railliet and Marullaz (1919) accept multiceps as a valid generic name.
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COCKERELL, T. The Name of the Gid Parasite. Nature 109, 310 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109310c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109310c0
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