Studies on the Helminth Fauna of Alaska. XI. Helminth Parasites of Microtine Rodents: Taxonomic Considerations

A survey of the helminth parasites of Alaskan rodents has been carried on by the writer since the winter of 1948-1949, as a continuation of an investigation begun in the central United States in 1942. Results of this work indicate that, despite the size of the Territory of Alaska, the survey is complete enough to furnish a reasonable knowledge of the species of helminths parasitic in microtine rodents in Alaska. Information derived from previous investigations serves as a standard against which the completeness of the present work may be judged. In the writer's opinion, the continuation of this work on a survey basis is impractical, and it is the purpose of this paper to report qualitatively the results obtained to date. Main emphasis has been placed here on the taxonomic consideration of the helminth species collected. Ecological and zoogeographical observations will be presented in another publication.