Experimental Infection of Two Species of Wrasse With The Digenean Proctoeces Subtenuis

Abstract

Two species of wrasse, Ctenolabrus rupestris (L.) and Crenilabrus melops (L.) were experimentally infected with the digenean Proctoeces subtenuis (Linton) collected from Scrobicularia plana (da Costa). The fishes were killed 1-24 days after infection, and the parasite population of their guts examined. About 20 % of the introduced parasites survived for 2-3 days, but the degree of infection decreased with time, the smallest specimens surviving longest. No significant differences were found between parasites from invertebrate and experimental vertebrate hosts.P. major Yamaguti, 1934, and P. insolitus (Nicoll, 1915) are declared synonymous with P. subtenuis (Linton, 1907The bearing of these results on the life cycle of P. subtenuis is discussed