scholarly journals Second Intermediate Host-Specificity of Haematoloechus complexus and Haematoloechus medioplexus (Digenea: Haematoloechidae)

1994 ◽  
Vol 80 (6) ◽  
pp. 1052 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott D. Snyder ◽  
J. Janovy
Parasitology ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Matthews

The cercaria and sporocyst of Bucephaloides gracilescens are described from Abra alba (Wood). Observations were made on the behaviour of the cercaria and the mechanism of release from the first intermediate host. The metacercaria was obtained experimentally for the first time using Ciliata mustela (L.), a species of Gadidae from rock pools, as second intermediate host. It has not previously been recorded from this fish. Unsuccessful attempts were made to infect species of fishes from three other families, namely, Bothidae, Pleuronectidae and Gobiidae, confirming the high degree of host specificity of the metacercaria to Gadidae. The metacercaria, its development and effect on the host are briefly discussed. It was linked with the adult on the basis of comparative morphology and ecology of the hosts.


Author(s):  
Miriam Rothschild

If the number of infections with (a) trematode parthenitae and cercariae using Littorina neritoides as first intermediate host only, and (b) encysted metacercariae using L. neritoides as second intermediate host only, are plotted against the size of the snails, two different curves result. The first shows a low rate of infection in the small size groups, but a steep upward slope rising to 91% in the large size groups. The second shows a curve increasing uniformly to 87% infection.Possible interpretations are discussed, and it is concluded that the difference is probably due to the fact that primary infections cause accelerated growth in the host.


Parasitology ◽  
1941 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Rothschild ◽  
Nora G. Sproston

In 1934 an intensive but unsuccessful search was made for the metacercariae of the Rhodometopa group of cercariae parasitizing Turritella communis Lamarck. Attention was concentrated on the vertebrate and invertebrate fauna of the Rame Mud, as Turritella has a patchy and circumscribed distribution in the Plymouth neighbourhood and is virtually restricted to a few small areas of ground in this region. The high rate of infection suggested that the metacercariae must occur commonly in some species found there, and the behaviour of the cercariae indicated that a fish served as second intermediate host (Rothschild, 1935, p. 169). This has now been proved.


Parasitology ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. CHRISTEN ◽  
M. MILINSKI

Many hermaphroditic parasites reproduce by both cross-fertilization and self-fertilization. To understand the maintenance of such mixed mating systems it is necessary to compare the fitness consequences of the two reproductive modes. This has, however, almost never been done in the context of host–parasite coevolution. Here we show the consequences of outcrossing and selfing in an advanced life-stage of the cestode Schistocephalus solidus, i.e. in its second intermediate host, the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Each juvenile stickleback was simultaneously exposed to 2 experimentally infected copepods, one harbouring outcrossed the other selfed parasites. At 60 days p.i. parasites were removed from the fish's body cavity and, with microsatellite markers, assigned to either outcrossed or selfed origin. Prevalence was not significantly higher in outcrossed parasites. However, those fish that were infected contained significantly more outcrossed than selfed parasites. Thus the probability of a selfed parasite to progress in the life-cycle is reduced in the second intermediate host. Furthermore, we found that even the multiply infected fish increased in weight during the experiment. Nevertheless, total worm weight in multiply infected fish was significantly lower than in singly infected ones, which thus might be a parasite life-history strategy.


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