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The functional morphology of the scolex and the genitalia of Acanthobothrium coronatum (Rud.) (Cestoda: Tetraphyllidea)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2015

Gwendolen Rees  and
H. Harford Williams
Gwendolen Rees
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and Commonwealth Bureau of Helminthology, St Albans
H. Harford Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and Commonwealth Bureau of Helminthology, St Albans
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Extract

The genus Acanthobothrium van Beneden, 1850, seems to be in a state of slight confusion due, possibly, to some inadequate descriptions which have led to subsequent misidentifications of some of the species. The type species A. coronatum was first recorded and very briefly described by Rudolphi (1819) as Bothriocephalus coronatus from ‘Squali stellaris, Squali squatinus and Torpedinis marmoratae“. Since then specimens have been assigned to this species which probably belong elsewhere; the list of synonyms and the host records are extensive. Baer (1948) divided the species of the genus into two groups, namely, those parasitic in sharks and those in rays. This seems to be a reasonable distinction as specificity is very marked in cestodes and especially in those of elasmobranchs. It was thought that a detailed study of the type species, presented here, would be a useful preliminary to a consideration of the genus as a whole.

Specimens of A. coronatum were obtained from the spiral valve of Scyliorhinus stellaris (L.) caught in Cardigan Bay in July 1956 and at Plymouth in August 1958 and August and September 1959. The number of worms, complete with scoleces varied from 6 to 10 per fish and in one instance 14. Many fragments of two to three proglottids and many individual proglottids were also present. The scoleces were attached in the first turn of the spiral valve and the strobila adhered feebly along the whole length, sometimes as far back as the rectal gland, leaving on removal a distinct groove in the mucosa.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , November 1965 , pp. 617 - 651
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

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References

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