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Phototactic responses of the cercaria of Echinoparyphium recurvatum during phases of sub-maximal and maximal infectivity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2024

A.M. McCarthy
A.M. McCarthy*
Affiliation:
Division of Life Sciences, King's College London, University of London, Campden Hill Road, London, W8 7AH, UK
*
*Correspondence to the author at the above address c/o Professor P.J. Whitfield.
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Abstract

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Phototactic responses of cercariae of the echinostome Echinoparyphium recurvatum (Digenea: Echinostomatidae) were investigated during phases of sub-maximal and maximal infectivity using a simple light/dark choice chamber. The phototactic responses of a total of 400 cercariae were examined in 20 replicate experiments during their sub-maxinal infectivity dispersal phase (0.5 h post-emergence from the first intermediate host Lymnaea peregra) and during their maximal infectivity phase (2.5 h post-emergence). Cercariae in the sub-maximal infectivity dispersal phase were found to be positively phototactic, significantly larger numbers of them occurring on the light side of a light/dark choice chamber P < 0.001. Cercariae in the maximal infectivity phase were found to be negatively phototactic, significantly larger numbers of them being found on the dark side of the choice chamber, P < 0.001. This report of ‘phototactic switching’ demonstrated by the cercariae of E. recurvatum from a positively phototactic dispersal phase to a negatively phototactic infection phase constitutes the first record of such behaviour in the cercaria of an echinostome.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Helminthology , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , January 1999 , pp. 63 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

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