Adult Plagioporus sinitsini occur within daughter sporocysts voided with the feces of prosobranch snails Elimia symmetrica in Basin Creek, North Carolina. These worms produced eggs containing active miracidia while still in the snail. Adults in snails and adults in rosyside dace, Clinostomus funduloides, collected from the same stream were indistinguishable morphometrically. Adults in snails develop from cotylocercous cercariae sequestered in daughter sporocysts that pass through the metacercaria stage. These observations, and previous study in Michigan, suggest that the life cycle of P. sinitsini has 3 potential pathways, i.e., a 3-host life cycle involving molluscan, arthropod, and piscine hosts, a 2-host life cycle involving only molluscan and piscine hosts, and a 1-host life cycle involving only the snail host. The truncated life cycles do not appear to be the result of paedomorphosis.
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February 2000
Research Article|
February 01 2000
Plagioporus sinitsini (Digenea: Opecoelidae): A One-Host Life Cycle
Michael A. Barger;
Michael A. Barger
Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston–Salem, North Carolina 27109
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Gerald W. Esch
Gerald W. Esch
Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston–Salem, North Carolina 27109
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J Parasitol (2000) 86 (1): 150–153.
Citation
Michael A. Barger, Gerald W. Esch; Plagioporus sinitsini (Digenea: Opecoelidae): A One-Host Life Cycle. J Parasitol 1 February 2000; 86 (1): 150–153. doi: https://doi.org/10.1645/0022-3395(2000)086[0150:PSDOAO]2.0.CO;2
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