Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T08:46:45.220Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Experiments on host-finding and host-specificity in the monogenean skin parasite Entobdella soleae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

G. C. Kearn
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England

Extract

The oncomiracidium of the monogenean skin parasite Entobdella soleae finds its flatfish host, Solea solea, by chemoreception. The free-swimming larva responds to a specific substance secreted by the skin of the common sole, attaches itself to this skin and immediately sheds its ciliated epidermal cells. Larvae respond in the same way to agar jelly which has been in contact with the skin of S. solea.

The oncomiracidia attach to S. solea skin in preference to that of other soleid fishes (Buglossidium luteum and Solea variegata), pleuronectid fishes (Limanda limanda, Pleuronectes platessa) and elasmobranch flatfishes (Raia spp.).

Larvae respond strongly to isolated epidermis from Solea solea but show no response to the fish's cornea, indicating that the attractive substance is produced by the mucus cells in the fish's epidermis.

The larvae attach with equal readiness to skin from the upper and lower surfaces of S. solea. Thus the preponderance of young parasites on the upper surfaces of soles is due not to a preference for the upper skin but to the fact that the lower skin is in contact with the substratum and cannot be reached by the larvae.

These results led to speculations on the way in which host specificity evolved in the Monogenea.

I am indebted to Mr J. E. Green of the Plymouth Laboratory for setting up a tank containing infected soles and for maintaining the tank and feeding the fishes for many months.

I am also grateful to the Directors and Staff of the Plymouth Laboratory and the Fisheries Laboratory, Lowestoft, for hospitality and assistance. I am particularly grateful to Mr J. Riley of the Lowestoft Laboratory for providing various flatfishes.

Type
Research Article
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

Armstrong, F. A. J. & Butler, E. I. (1960). Chemical changes in sea water off Plymouth during 1958. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 39, 299302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barry, J. M. & O'Rourke, F. J. (1959). Species specificity of fish mucus. Nature, Lond. 184, 2039.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berlin, L. B. (1951). Compensatory regeneration of the epidermis of the groundling. Dokl. Akad. Nauk. SSSR 80, 245–8. (In Russian.)Google Scholar
Bychowsky, B. E. (1933). Die Bedeutung der monogenetischen Trematoden für die Erforschung der systematischen Beziehungen der Karpfenfische. Zool. Anz. 102, 243–51.Google Scholar
Bychowsky, B. E. (1957). Monogenetic Trematodes, their Classification and Phylogeny. Moscow: Leningrad. Academy of Sciences, U.S.S.R. (in Russian); English translation by Hargis, W. J. and Oustinoff, P. C. (1961). Washington: American Institute of Biological Sciences.Google Scholar
Cunningham, J. T. (1890). A Treatise on the Common Sole (Solea vulgaris). 147 pp. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.Google Scholar
Enomoto, N., Izumi, T. & Tomiyasu, Y. (1961). Studies on the external mucus substance of fishes. IV. Amino acid composition of the protein of the external mucus substance from some fishes. Bull. Jap. Soc. scient. Fish. 27, 606–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enomoto, N. & Tomiyasu, Y. (1961). Studies on the external mucus substance of fishes. VI. Qualitative analysis of the mucus-polysaccharide of some fishes. Bull. Jap. Soc. scient. Fish. 27, 613–16.Google Scholar
Euzet, L. & Raibaut, A. (1960). Le développement postlarvaire de Squalonchocotyle torpedinis (Price, 1942) (Monogenea, Hexabothriidae). Bull. Soc. neuchdtel. Sci. nat. 83, 101–8.Google Scholar
Frankland, H. M. T. (1955). The life history and bionomics of Diclidophora denticulata (Trematoda: Monogenea). Parasitology 45, 313–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gage, J. (1966). Experiments with the behaviour of the bivalves Montacuta substriata and M. ferruginosa, ‘commensals’ with spatangoids. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 46, 7188.Google Scholar
Göz, H. (1941). Über den Art- und Individualgeruch bei Fischen. Z. vergl. Physiol. 29, 145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hargis, W. J. (1953). Monogenetic trematodes of Westhampton Lake fishes. III. Part 2. A discussion of host specificity. Proc. helminth. Soc. Wash. 20, 98104.Google Scholar
Hasler, A. D. (1957). The sense organs: olfactory and gustatory senses of fishes. In The Physiology of Fishes (ed. Brown, M. E.), 526 pp. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hyman, L. H. (1951). The Invertebrates: Platyhelminthes and Rhynchocoela, 550 pp. New York, London: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Izyumova, N. A. (1953). Experimental study on the specificity of monogenetic trematodes. Trudy zool. Inst., Leningr. 13, 155–9. (In Russian.)Google Scholar
Izyumova, N. A. (1956). Observations on the biology of Dactylogyrus vastator Nybelin. Parazit. Sb. 16, 229–43. (In Russian.)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. mar. biol. Lab. Woods Hole, 62, 89111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1963 a). The life cycle of the monogenean Entobdella soleae, a skin parasite of the common sole. Parasitology 53, 253–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1963 b). The egg, oncomiracidium and larval development of Entobdella soleae, a monogenean skin parasite of the common sole. Parasitology 53, 435–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1963 c). Feeding in some monogenean skin parasites: Entobdella soleae on Solea solea and Acanthocotyle sp. on Raia clavata. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 43, 749–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1964). The attachment of the monogenean Entobdella soleae to the skin of the common sole. Parasitology 54, 327–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1965). The biology of Leptocotyle minor, a skin parasite of the dogfish, Scyliorhinus canicula. Parasitology 55, 473–80.Google Scholar
Kearn, G. C. (1967). The life-cycles and larval development of some acanthocotylids (Monogenea) from Plymouth rays. Parasitology 57, 157–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Llewellyn, J. (1957). Host-specificity in monogenetic trematodes. In First Symposium on Host Specificity among Parasites of Vertebrates. 324 pp. Neuchâtel.Google Scholar
Llewellyn, J. (1963). Larvae and larval development of monogeneans. Adv. Parasit. 1, 287326.Google Scholar
Llewellyn, L. C. (1965). Some aspects of the biology of the marine leech Hemibdella soleae. Proc. zool. Soc. Land. 145, 509–28.Google Scholar
MacCallum, G. A. (1927). A new ectoparasitic trematode Epibdella melleni sp.nov. Zoo pathologica 1, 291300.Google Scholar
MacInnis, A. J. (1965). Responses of Schistosoma mansoni miracidia to chemical attractants. J. Parasit. 51, 731–46.Google Scholar
Nigrelli, R. F. (1937). Further studies on the susceptibility and acquired immunity of marine fishes to Epibdella melleni, a monogenetic trematode. Zoologica, N.Y. 22, 185–92.Google Scholar
Nigrelli, R. F. (1947). Susceptibility and immunity of marine fishes to Benedenia (= Epibdella) melleni (MacCallum), a monogenetic trematode. III. Natural hosts in the West Indies. J. Parasit. 33, Suppl. 25. (Abstr.)Google Scholar
Paperna, I. (1963). Some observations on the biology and ecology of Dactylogyrus vastator in Israel. Bamidgeh 15, 828.Google Scholar
Shepherd, A. M. (1962). The Emergence of Larvae from Cysts in the Genus Heterodera. 90 pp. Tech. Commun. Commonw. Bur. Helminth. no. 32.Google Scholar
Sproston, N. G. (1946). A synopsis of the monogenetic trematodes. Trans. zool. Soc. Lond. 25, 185600.Google Scholar
Wieser, W. (1955). The attractiveness of plants to larvae of root-knot nematodes. I. The effect of tomato seedlings and excised roots on Meloidogyne hapla Chitwood. Proc. helminth. Soc. Wash. 22, 106–12.Google Scholar
Wright, C. A. (1959). Host-location by trematode miracidia. Ann. trop. Med. Parasit. 53, 288–92.Google Scholar
Young, J. Z. (1962). The Life of Vertebrates. 820 pp. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar