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Parasite X-Files
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2018
Extract
As if lifted from the script pages of a previously aired installment of the popular Friday night “istherelifeoutthereism”, one group of microscopic parasitic trematodes will puncture, overrun and terrorize not one, not two, but three distinct and disparate hosts to survive and breed. Known as the Ascocotyle complex of trematode worms, these well-designed hitch-hikers sport a crown of one (Figure 1) and sometimes two rows of 15-20 spines surrounding a very muscular oral sucker (Figure 2), as well as a ventrally placed body sucker and a full complement of smaller, but sharp, body spines (Figure 3), which they employ to prevent easy dislodging from their intended host. The life cycle for these brackish water travelers begins in a brood sac developing within amnicolid snails (such as Cerathidia) which graze the bottom of tidal marshes and ingest the trematode eggs.
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- Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 1996