Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T00:43:10.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The life-cycles and larval development of some acanthocotylids (Monogenea) from Plymouth rays

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

G. C. Kearn
G. C. Kearn
Affiliation:
School of Biology, University of East Anglia, Norwich
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Acanthocotylid (monogenean) parasites inhabit the skin of rays, and the lack of cilia on the infective larvae of these parasites may be an adaptation to the host's bottom-living habits.

Freshly hatched larvae must remain on the sea-bottom until a ray settles on top of them, when the larvae then have the opportunity to attach themselves to the host's ventral surface. Acanthocotyle lobianchi, which infects Raia montagui and R. clavata at Plymouth, becomes sexually mature on the host's ventral surface and rarely wanders from it, but A. elegans, which is found on R. clavata only, migrates to the dorsal surface of the host before reaching sexual maturity.

The larvae of acanthocotylids use their haptoral hooklets to attach themselves to the host's epidermis, but as the parasites increase in size the load on these hooks becomes acute. This load is relieved not as in other monogeneans by the development of hamuli but by the transformation of the posterior third of the larval body into an accessory ‘pseudohaptor’.

I am obliged to the Director and Staff of the Plymouth Laboratory for laboratory facilities and to Mr J. E. Green for his interest and help on many occasions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , February 1967 , pp. 157 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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

Bonham, K. & Guberlet, J. E. (1938). Ectoparasitic trematodes of Puget Sound fishes—Acanthocotyle. Am. Mid. Nat. 20, 590–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brinkmann, A. (1952). Fish trematodes from Norwegian waters. I. The history of fish trematode investigations in Norway and the Norwegian species of the order Monogenea. Univ. Bergen Årb. 1, 1–134.Google Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1963 a). The life-cycle of the monogenean Entobdella soleae, a skin parasite of the common sole. Parasitology 53, 253–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1963 b). Feeding in some monogenean skin parasites: Entobdella soleae on Solea solea and Acanthocotyle sp. on Raia clavata. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 43, 749–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1963 c). The egg, oncomiracidium and larval development of Entobdella soleae, a monogenean skin parasite of the common sole. Parasitology 53, 435–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Llewellyn, J. (1957). The larvae of some monogenetic trematode parasites of Plymouth fishes. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 36, 243–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Llewellyn, J. (1965). The evolution of parasitic platyhelminths. In Third Symposium of the British Society for Parasitology. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lyons, K. M. (1966). The chemical nature and evolutionary significance of monogenean attachment sclerites. Parasitology 56, 63–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monticelli, F. S. (1890). Note Elmintologiche. Boll. Soc. Nat. Napoli 4, 189–208.Google Scholar
Monticelli, F. S. (1899). II genere ‘Acanthocotyle’. Archs Parasit. 2, 75–120.Google Scholar