Host life history and the effect of parasitic castration on growth: A field study of Cerithidea californica Haldeman (Gastropoda : Prosobranchia) and its trematode parasites

Abstract

The prevalence of parasitic infection by larval digenetic trematodes in natural populations of the mud snail, Cerithidea californica Haldeman, was found to increase with snail length; all snails ≥ 33 mm were infected. Distributions of infections by the seven most common larval trematodes were heterogeneous due to two species being more common than expected in the smaller size classes of snails, two being more common than expected in the larger size-classes of snails and three species being most prevalent in snails of intermediate length. The relative abundances of trematodes in different size-classes reflected these distributional patterns. A mark-recapture field study of snail growth rates failed to demonstrate that parasitic infection causes gigantism in Cerithidea. Parasitism tended to stunt the growth of juvenile snails and to a lesser degree, that of adult snails. The effects of trematodes on snail growth was shown to be species specific. This finding contrasts with those of earlier studies in which gigantic growth was observed in infected snails. This discrepancy is attributed to differences in the life histories of the host snails. It is predicted that gigantism will occur commonly in short-lived or semelparous species of snails but rarely, if ever, in long-lived iteroparous species which are predominately marine.