Meal Beetle Larvae as Intermediate Hosts of the Poultry Tapeworm Raillietina cesticillus

Abstract

HORSFALL (1938) demonstrated experimentally that the adults of the common meal beetles, Tribolium castaneum and T. confusum, serve as suitable intermediate hosts for the following poultry tapeworms: Hymenolepis carioca, Choanotaenia infundibulum, and Raillietina cesticillus. The question naturally arose regarding the susceptibility of the larvae of these meal beetles to infection with the cysticercoids of various species of poultry tapeworms. Experiments were undertaken, therefore, to test this point. Three species of tapeworms, namely, Raillietina cesticillus, R. echinobothrida, and Hymenolepis carioca were used in the experiments recorded in this paper. Larvae, pupae, and adults of meal beetles, exposed to infection as larvae, were fed to chickens to determine whether the insects harbored infective cysticercoids. The results obtained in these investigations are reported in the following pages.MATERIAL AND METHODSThe beetle larvae used in the experiments reported in this paper were obtained by holding adult meal beetles for several weeks in battery .