Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-15T10:30:51.799Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The life cycle of the monogenean Entobdella soleae, a skin parasite of the common sole

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

G. C. Kearn
G. C. Kearn
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Comparative Physiology, The University, Birmingham 15, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The life cycle of Entobdella soleae, a monogenean skin-parasite of a marine bottom-living flatfish (Solea solea) has been described and related to the habits of the host, which buries itself in the sediment for some time each day and when not buried rarely moves more than a few centimetres from the sea bottom.

The eggs of the parasite are laid by specimens attached to the lower surface of the host and are anchored to sand grains on the sea bottom by an egg stalk bearing sticky droplets. The anchoring device may prevent the eggs from being carried by water currents vertically or laterally out of the region inhabited by soles.

The free-swimming oncomiracidium which hatches from the egg invades the anterior part of the upper surface of the fish, which is the only part exposed when the fish is buried in the sand. After a short period of development on the upper surface the parasite emigrates to the lower surface where sexual maturity is reached.

Adult parasites, which are distributed randomly on the lower surface, are orientated with the adhesive organ upstream with respect to water currents produced by the forward locomotion of the host, but the parasites are capable of moving from place to place on the lower surface of the fish. This movement of the parasite may be connected with the nature of the food.

I wish to thank the Director and Staff of the Plymouth Laboratory and in particular Mr J. E. Green, for invaluable assistance. I am also very grateful to Dr J. Llewellyn for advice and criticism. The work was conducted during the tenure of a Fishery Research Training Grant from the Development Commission.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 53 , Issue 1-2 , May 1963 , pp. 253 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1963

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

Bateson, W. (1890). The sense-organs and perceptions of fishes; with remarks on the supply of bait. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. 1, 225–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bychowsky, B. E. (1957). Monogenetic trematodes, their classification and phylogeny, 509 pp. Moscow, Leningrad: Academy of Sciences, U.S.S.R.Google Scholar
Frankland, H. M. T. (1955). The life history and bionomics of Diclidophora denticulata (Trematoda: Monogenea). Parasitology, 45, 313–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gallien, L. (1935). Recherches expérimentales sur le dimorphisme évolutif et la biologie de Polystomum integerrimum Froel. Trav. Sta. zool. Wimereux, 12, 1–181.Google Scholar
Heath, H. (1902). The anatomy of Epibdella squamula sp. nov. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. (Zool.), 3, 109–36.Google Scholar
Jahn, T. L. & Kuhn, L. R. (1932). The life-history of Epibdella melleni MacCallum, 1927, a monogenetic trematode parasitic on marine fishes. Biol. Bull., Wood's Hole, 62, 89–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1962). Breathing movements in Entobdella soleae (Trematoda, Monogenea) from the skin of the common sole. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. 42, 93–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1963). The egg, oncomiracidium and larval development of Entobdella soleae, a monogenean skin parasite of the common sole. Parasitology, in the press.Google Scholar
Llewellyn, J. (1954). Observations on the food and the gut pigment of the Polyopisthocotylea (Trematoda: Monogenea). Parasitology, 44, 428–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Llewellyn, J. (1956). The host-specificity, micro-ecology, adhesive attitudes, and comparative morphology of some trematode gill parasites. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. 35, 113–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Llewellyn, J. (1957). The larvae of some monogenetic trematodes of Plymouth fishes. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. 36, 243–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Llewellyn, J. (1962). The life histories and population dynamics of monogenean gill parasites of Trachurus trachurus. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. 42, 587–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratje, O. (1950). Die Bodenbedeckung des Englischen Kanals und die maximalen Gezeiten-stromgeschwindigkeiten. Dtsch. hydrogr. Z. 3, 201–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sproston, N. G. (1946). A synopsis of the monogenetic trematodes. Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. 25, 185–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stride, A. H. (1959). A linear pattern on the sea floor and its interpretation. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. 38, 313–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yonge, C. M. (1962). On the primitive significance of the byssus in the Bivalvia and its effects in evolution. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. 42, 113–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar