Emergence of Third-Stage Larvae of Angiostrongylus costaricensis Morera and Cespedes 1971 from Biomphalaria glabrata (Say)

Abstract

Courtney and Forrester (op. cit.) called it C. spiculigerum. Hartwich (1964, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin 40: 15-53) considered that more than one species went by C. spiculigerum and erected C. rudolphii for those specimens reported by Huizinga and by others. This name has been accepted by most recent workers (see references listed by Barus et al., 1978, Helminths of fish-eating birds of the Palaearctic Region I, Nematoda. W. Junk, Publ., Czech. Acad. Sci., Prague, 318 p.), but there are several possible and proposed, older synonyms. In fact, our specimens from the Double-crested Cormorant, White Pelican, Brown Pelican, and Least Bittern, Ixobrychus exilis, collected in Mississippi, as well as additional specimens from Louisiana and Florida were identified as C. microcephalum (Rudolphi 1809) using the key by Barus et al. (op. cit). The interlabial tips are rounded in adults, rather than bifurcated as reported for C. rudolphii. On the other hand, the 4.7to 6.2-mm-long spicules in 12 males 21.0 to 34.5 mm long are 18 to 25% of the body length, which fits within the length-range of those reported for C. rudolphii, but is a smaller percentage of total body length. The spicule tips are similar to those of C. rudolphii, and apparently, the postanal papillae are similar in the two species. We have seen a third species represented by a few specimens. Contracaecum micropapillatum (Stossich 1890) infected one migrating White Pelican. Oglesby (1960, Auk 77: 354) reported more than 1,100 specimens identified as probably C. micropapillatus from a dead White Pelican in Apalachee Bay, Florida. We wish to thank W. Guthrie Perry of the Louisiana Fish and Wildlife Commission for providing space and assistance at Rockefeller Refuge; Richard Heard, at that time with the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, and Charles Courtney for supplying some material from the Brown Pelican; and Donald Norris of the University of Southern Mississippi for examining the gavaged rats. This study was conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service, under PL 88-309 Project No. 2-325-R and HEW-Public Health Service, Food and Drug Administration Contract No. 223-76-2141. ose of C. rudolphii, and apparen ly, the