Maritrema orensense and Maritrema bonaerense (Digenea: Microphallidae): Descriptions, Life Cycles, and Comparative Morphometric Analyses

PILAR ALDA; NICOLÁS BONEL; RYAN F. HECHINGER; SERGIO MARTORELLI

JOURNAL OF PARASITOLOGY

AMER SOC PARASITOLOGISTS

Lugar: Washington, Estados Unidos; Año: 2013 vol. 99 p. 218 - 228

0022-3395

We elucidate the life cycle of Maritrema orensense for the first time and experimentally confirm that of the sympatric Maritrema bonaerense. In Argentinean estuaries, both species parasitize the cochliopid snail Heleobia australis as first intermediate host, the grapsid crabs Neohelice granulata and Cyrtograpsus angulatus as second intermediate hosts, and gulls as definitive hosts. We describe the daughter sporocysts and cercariae of M. orensense, and redescribe these stages for M. bonaerense. Sporocysts of M. orensense were shorter, with fewer developed cercariae than M. bonaerense. The cercaria of M. orensense had longer, bigger, and more undulating penetration glands than M. bonaerense. We redescribe metacercariae and adults of both species, and compare them with the previous descriptions. Intestinal cecum length, vitellaria shape and extension, and egg size are the most relevant characteristics in metacercariae and adults for differentiating the species. Hence, the detailed morphological description and comparative analyses of morphometrics obtained from natural and experimental infections permit clear differentiation of M. orensense and M. bonaerense at each life stage.