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Pulmovermis and Hydrophitrema, Hemiurid Lung Flukes of Sea Snakes: New Host Records with a Corrigendum and Reevaluation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2009

Paul H. Vercammen-Grandjean  and
Donald Heyneman
Paul H. Vercammen-Grandjean
Affiliation:
The G. W. Hooper Foundation and International Center for Medical Research and Training, University of California Medical Center, San Francisco, California
Donald Heyneman
Affiliation:
The G. W. Hooper Foundation and International Center for Medical Research and Training, University of California Medical Center, San Francisco, California
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Extract

Recent collection of lung fluke material from hydrophiid sea snakes permits a reevaluation of the suitability of criteria separating the monotypic genera Pulmovermis Coil and Kuntz, 1960 and Hydrophitrema Sandars, 1960. Consideration is also given of the new subfamily Pulmoverminae, erected by Sandars (1961) to include these genera within the digenetic family Hemiuridae. Typographical errors in the original description of H. gigantica Sandars, 1960 have been corrected, reducing the gross or external measurements of that species by ten times. Validity of characters such as flexure of the body, location of testes and ovary with respect to body length, length of seminal vesicle compared to body length, and anterior extension of the seminal vesicle with respect to acetabulum have been rejected. Retained are general body shape, relative position of acetabulum and development of peduncle, degree of coiling of seminal vesicle, and tandem or oblique arrangement of testes. Characters newly employed include body length-to-width ratio and presence of a cuticular fold in Hydrophitrema enclosing both suckers. Retention of the present genera based on these revised characterizations is recommended. Subfamily criteria (form, structure, and size of seminal vesicle, shape of vitellaria) are similar to those employed among the other nineteen subfamilies of this large and possibly heterogeneous group. In addition, these flukes are unique within the family on ecological and physiological grounds, in that they parasitize the lungs of sea snakes rather than the stomach of marine fishes, the usual site and host for members of this family.

Type
Research Papers
Information
Journal of Helminthology , Volume 38 , Issue 3-4 , December 1964 , pp. 369 - 382
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1964

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References

Coil, W. H. and Kuntz, R. E., 1960.—“Three new genera of trematodes from Pacific sea serpents, Laticauda colubrina and L. semifasciata.” Proc. Helminth. Soc. Washington, 27, 145–150.Google Scholar
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Sandars, D. F., 1961.—“Pulmoverminae n.subfam. (Trematoda: Digenea) for the genera Pulmovermis and Hydrophitrema.” J. Helminth., 35, 305–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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