Life history of Allocreadium fasciatusi Kakaji, 1969 (Trematoda: Allocreadiidae) from the freshwater fish Aplocheilus melastigma McClelland

Abstract

The life history of Allocreadium fasciatusi which occurs in the intestine of a freshwater fish Aplocheilus melastigma has been worked out in detail. The snail Amnicola travancorica acts as the first intermediate host. The miracidium hatching out from the eggs attacks the snail and passes through two generations of rediae. Cercariae are of ophthalmoxiphidiocercous type with very long tail and are identical to Cercariae Indicae XLIX Sewell, 1922. The cercariae penetrate and develop into metacercariae in the haemecoel of the copepods Mesocyclops leuckarti, Microcyclops varicans and Marcocyclops distructus. Upon ingestion by the definitive host, the metacercariae excyst and develop into adults. All the stages in the life cycle are described and the life cycle is compared with other allocreadiid life cycles. The original description of A. fasciatusi is revised and Psilostomum chilkai Chatterji, 1956 from Lates calcalifer is synonymized with it.

Biology of Crassicutis cichlasomae, a parasite of cichlid fishes in Mexico and Central America

“…The presence of only slight differences in the rate of embryonic development may indicate that water temperature does not influence embryonic development of C. cichlasomae as much as in other digenean species in the temperature zone (see Malek, 1980;Smyth & Halton, 1983). As in the present study, Madhavi (1976Madhavi ( , 1978 did not find temperature to be a crucial factor determining the rate of development of Allocreadiumfasciatusi in India. 1 he low proportion of fully developed C. cichlasomae eggs with living miracidia, compared to those dead or underdeveloped, observed during the present study, might be attributed to their fragility during manipulation, high susceptibility to desiccation or the presence of bacteria and fungi.…”

Comparative karyological analysis of three members of Allocreadiidae (Digenea): taxonomic and phylogenetic implications

“…However, the chromosome set of diploid A. handiai, containing four large pairs of submetacentrics, one pair of medium-sized submetacentrics, and two pairs of small subtelocentrics, markedly differs from that of A. isoporum. The two Indian species, A. handiai and A. fasciatusi, are exceptional in using Table 3 Measurements (means±SD) and classification of chromosomes of Allocreadium isoporum (from ten metaphase plates) a See Table 1 Madhavi 1978Madhavi , 1980, so it is hardly surprising that their karyotype structure does not indicate close phylogenetic affinities with European Allocreadium, developing in sphaeriid bivalves. The karyotype of Crepidostomum sp., described therein, is composed of 12 chromosomes and contains only one pair of large metacentric elements.…”

Studies on two new species of Microsporida hyperparasitic in adultAllocreadium fasciatusi(Trematoda, Allocreadiidae)

“…The fluke A. fasciatusi grows to the adult stage in the intestine of the fish and its larval stages develop in two intermediate hosts, the first being a snail, Amnicola travancorica Benson, 1960 in which two generations of rediae and the cercariae develop. Several species of copepods act as the second hosts, harbouring encysted metacercariae (Madhavi, 1977). No microsporidia have been detected in the larval stages.…”