Abstract
ABSTRACTDuring a survey of the coccidian parasites of reptiles from Iowa, three specimens of Crotalus horridus L., the Timber Rattlesnake, and one of Sistrurus catenatus (Rafinesque), the Massasauga Rattlesnake, were found to be passing oocysts of a Caryospora, here described as C. bigenetica n. sp. Since these snakes (family Crotalidae) are known to subsist mainly on small mammals, oocysts from one of the Timber Rattlesnakes were fed to laboratory white mice (Mus musculus L.) to determine if mammals might be involved as alternate hosts in the life cycle. At necropsy, tissues of the tongue and dermis of the mice revealed a sequence of stages which included mature male and female gamonts, fully sporulated sporocysts, “excysted” sporozoites, and “resting” sporozoites that lay individually in solitary, cyst‐like host cells termed “caryocysts.” A coccidia‐free Massasauga that was fed an infected mouse, at a time when caryocysts in the mouse would have been present, later passed oocysts similar to those of the original inoculum. These results, along with the discovery of endogenous stages (asexual and sexual) in the intestine of the Timber Rattlesnake and the experimentally infected Massasauga, suggest that this parasite has a heteroxenous life cycle pattern, with sexual stages occurring both in the ophidian and the mammalian hosts.
Published Version
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