Parasitology, Harold W. Manter Laboratory of
Date of this Version
8-1970
Abstract
The complete life cycle for a species of Syncoeliidae Odhner, 1927, is unknown. Adults are known from the branchial cavity and mouth of marine fishes which are usually found offshore, and second intermediate hosts have been reported. Sars (1885, Challenger Rept. Zool. 13: 228 p.) described the metacercaria of Syncoelium filiferum from the perivisceral cavity of the euphausiids Nematoscelis megalops Sars, 1883, and Thysanoessa gregaria Sars, 1883, in the South Atlantic. DoIlfus (1966, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Ser. 2 38: 195-200) described Metacercaria (Gen. ?) theomonodi from some poorly preserved material amidst a collection of "copepods and chaetognaths" collected off Cape Verde Islands. I concur with Dr. H. W. Manter and Mrs. M. H. Pritchard who, in a footnote in DoIIfus' paper, identified the worm as a species of Paronatrema DoIlfus, 1937. A photograph was presented of the worm attached externally to the euphausiid Nyctiphanes couchii (Bell, 1853). The following report is the first of an external attachment for a larval member of the genus Syncoelium Looss, 1899, and the first of a documented association with a copepod.
Comments
Published in the Journal of Parasitology (August 1970) 56(4): 834-836. Copyright 1970, the American Society of Parasitologists. Used by permission.