Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T16:44:56.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The morphology and life-cycle of Cephalochlamys namaquensis (Cohn, 1906) (Cestoda: Pseudophyllidea) from Xenopus muelleri and X. laevis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

June P. Thurston
June P. Thurston
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Makerere University College, Kampala, Uganda
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Some morphological characteristics of Cephalochlamys namaquensis from Xenopus muelleri collected at Kajansi, Kampala, are described.

Specimens of cestodes from other localities in Africa are compared with those from Kajansi in order to assess the reliability of the characters of the proposed genus Pseudocephalochlamys Yamaguti, 1959. Reasons are given for rejecting the genus.

The embryonated, non-operculate egg capsules hatch at once in water. The ciliated coracidium is eaten by cyclopid copepods and the oncosphere rapidly penetrates through the mid-gut wall into the haemocoel. The procercoid develops a cercomer which moves actively during development and which retains the six hooks of the oncosphere. The procercoid develops the scolex, osmoregulatory canals and calcareous corpuscles typical of the adult while within the copepod. It is enclosed within a membrane. The procercoid is infective to Xenopus toads 20 days after being ingested by the copepod. No other intermediate host has been found.

Thermocyclops infrequens Kiefer is the intermediate host at Kajansi, Kampala. The maximum number of C. namaquensis recovered from one toad was 103; usually there are between 1 and 6 per toad. Between 22% and 100% of Xenopus muelleri and X. laevis from different localities are infected with C. namaquensis.

I wish to express by thanks to the Fisheries Officers and fishermen of Kajansi Fish Farm who have willingly caught Xenopus for me whenever required, and also to the many other people who have assisted me in getting specimens with which to work.

I am also indebted to Mr L. Rugema who prepared most of the histological preparations, to Dr J. Green, Westfield College, London, who kindly identified Thermocyclops infrequens, and to Dr G. Rees, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, who gave me many useful comments during the course of this work.

A research grant from Makerere University College contributed towards the cost of obtaining specimens.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , February 1967 , pp. 187 - 200
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

Baer, J. G. & Fain, A. (1961). Cestodes. Explor. Pare natn. Garamba Miss H. de Saeger 21, 3–10.Google Scholar
Baylis, H. A. (1934). Miscellaneous notes on parasitic worms. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (10), 13, 223–8.Google Scholar
Blanchard, R. (1908). Le genre Chlamydocephalus Cohn, 1906, remplacé par Cephalochlamys R.Bl., 1908. Arch. Parasit. 12, 334.Google Scholar
Cohn, L. (1906). Zur Anatomie zweier Cestoden. Zentbl. Bakt. ParasitKde (Abt. I. Orig.) 40, 362–7.Google Scholar
Crompton, D. W. T. (1964). The envelope surrounding Polymorphus minutus (Goeze, 1782) (Acanthocephala) during its development in the intermediate host, Gammarus pulex. Parasitology 54, 721–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elkan, E. (1960). Some interesting pathological cases in Amphibians. Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 134, 275–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meinkoth, L. N. A. (1947). Notes on the life cycle and taxonomic position of Haplobothrium globuliforme Cooper, a tapeworm of Amia calva L. Trans. Am. microsc. Soc. 66, 256–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mettrick, D. F. (1960). Contributions to the helminth fauna of Central Africa. II. Some cestodes of the order Pseudophyllidea recorded from Southern Rhodesia. Proc. Trans. Rhod. scient. Ass. 48, 54–62.Google Scholar
Mettrick, D. F. (1963). Some cestodes of reptiles and amphibians from the Rhodesias. Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 141, 239–50.Google Scholar
Ortlepp, R. J. (1926). On a collection of helminths from a South African farm. J. Helminth. 4, 127–42.Google Scholar
Pritchard, M. H. (1964). Notes on four helminths from the clawed toad, Xenopus laevis (Daudin), in South Africa. Proc. helminth. Soc. Wash. 31, 121–8.Google Scholar
Smyth, J. D. (1963). The Biology of Cestode Life-cycles, 38 pp. Technical Communication no. 34. Farnham Royal, Bucks., England: Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux.Google Scholar
Smyth, J. D. & Clegg, J. A. (1959). Egg shell formation in trematodes and cestodes. Expl Parasit. 8, 286–323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Southwell, T. & Kirshner, A. (1937). On some parasitic worms in Xenopus laevis, the South African clawed toad. Ann. trop. Med. Parasit. 31, 245–65.Google Scholar
Wardle, R. A. & McLeod, J. A. (1952). The Zoology of Tapeworms, 780 pp. Minneapolis: University Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Yamaguti, S. (1959). Systema Helminthum, Vol. 2. The Cestodes of Vertebrates, 860 pp. New York: Interscience Publishers Inc.Google Scholar