Maintenance of the Life Cycle of Ligula intestinalis in the Laboratory

Abstract

Techniques for the maintenance of the life cycle of Ligula intestinalis in the laboratory are described. Fertile eggs were produced by adult cestodes 72 hr after ducklings were fed with infective plerocercoids. Eggs were extracted by sieving and washed by decanting prior to incubation in water for 10 days at 25 C. A bright light stimulated developed eggs to hatch, and the emergent coracidia were fed to the copepods Diaptomus fragilis and Mesocyclops leuckarti. Infective procercoids were present in the haemocoel of copepods after 10 days at 25 C. Plerocercoids developed in tropical cyprinid fish, e.g., Danio malabaricus, which were infected by exposure to infective copepods.