Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T00:41:20.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An analysis of the molluscan hosts of the trematodes of birds and mammals and some speculations on host-specificity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

W. H. Ewers
Affiliation:
School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Sydney University, Australia*

Extract

Data on 279 species of trematodes of birds and mammals are analysed in tables, to show the molluscan orders and families that act as first intermediate hosts of various trematode families.

Host-specificity is highly developed in the first larvae of trematodes and it is suggested that, as a consequence of this, certain species, genera and families of molluscs harbour a greater variety of trematodes than others. The families Lymnaeidae, Physidae, Planorbidae, Hydrobiidae and Thiaridae are by far the most important first-intermediate hosts of the trematodes of birds and mammals whose life cycles are known; each family acting as host of not less than twenty-four species and eight families of trematodes.

This paper is published with the approval of the Director General of Health, Canberra, A.C.T.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cort, W. W., McMullen, D. B. & Brackett, S. (1937). Ecological studies on cercariae in Stagnicola emarginata angulata (Sowerby) in the Douglas Lake Region, Michigan. J. Parasit. 23, 504–32.Google Scholar
Cort, W. W., Hussey, K. L. & Ameel, D. J. (1957). Variations in infections of Diplostomum flexicaudum (Cort and Brooks, 1928) in snail intermediate hosts of different sizes. J.Parasit. 43, 221–32.Google Scholar
Mathies, A. W. & Cort, W. W. (1956). Larval trematode infections in snails of different sizes. J. Parasit. 42, 429–31.Google Scholar
Morton, J. E. (1958). Molluscs, London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Porter, A. (1938). The larval trematodes found in certain South African Mollusca. Publ. South Afr. Inst. Med. Res. 8 (xlii).Google Scholar
Rees, F. G. (1932). An investigation into the occurrence, structure and life history of the trematode parasites of four species of Lymnaea. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1932, pp. 132.Google Scholar
Sandground, J. H. (1929). A consideration of the relation of host-specificity of helminths and other metazoan parasites to the phenomena of age resistance and immunity. Parasitology, 21, 227–55.Google Scholar
Sewell, S. (1922). Cercariae Indicae. Indian J. med. Res. Suppl. 10, 1370.Google Scholar
Stunkard, H. W. (1957). Host-specificity and parallel evolution of parasitic flatworms. Z. Tropenmed. u. Parasit. 8, 254–63.Google Scholar
Thiele, J. (19291931). Handbuch der systematischen Weichtierkunde. Jena: Gustav Fischer.Google Scholar
Wright, C. A. (1960). Relationships between trematodes and molluscs. Ann. trop. Med. Parasit. 54, 17.Google Scholar
Yamaguti, S. (1958). Systema Helminthum, Vol. 1. The Digenetic Trematodes of Vertebrates. New York: Interscience Publishers.Google Scholar