New marine hosts for Parorchis acanthus, Cryptocotyle lingua, Maritrema megametrios, and Maritrema gratiosum, trematodes of birds from British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

New molluscan, crustacean, and avian hosts were found for four species of digenetic trematodes in Vancouver, British Columbia, from 1973 to 1977. The rediae and cercariae of Parorchis acanthus (Nicoll) were discovered in Nucella lamellosa (Gmelin). Adults were recovered after 19 days from experimental feedings of the metacercariae to a newly hatched domestic chick. The cercariae of Cryptocotyle lingua (Creplin) from the snail Littorina scutulata Gould were used to infect young fish, Leptocottus armatus Girard, Oligocottus maculosus Girard, and Platichthys stellatus (Pallas). These fish, infected with the metacercariae, were fed to newly hatched gulls, Larus glaucescens Naumann, and mature worms were found in the anterior half of the intestine after 14 and 21 days. The metacercariae of Maritrema megametrios Deblock and Rausch, found in Orchestia traskiana Stimpson and Gnorimosphaeroma oregonense (Dana), became ovigerous in Locke's solution at 40 °C at 48 h. Natural infections were found in Larus Philadelphia (Ord). The metacercariae of Maritrema gratiosum Nicoll, found in Balanus glandula Darwin, also became ovigerous in vitro. Adults were found with two other microphallid species in the intestine of one Bucephala islandica (Gmelin).