On the Life History of Mesostephanus kentuckiensis (Cable, 1935) n. comb. (Trematoda: Cyathocotylidae)

Abstract

A survey of snails from streams in central Ohio revealed that Cercaria kentuckiensis was common in one of the prosobranch snails, Goniobasis livescens. C. kentuckiensis was first reported by Cable (1935), and later described by him (1938) from cercariae obtained from Goniobasis semicarinata which he collected from Scaffold Cane Creek in Madison County, Kentucky. Cable reported that the cercariae encysted in several species of cyprinid fishes. C. kentuckiensis was again reported by Cable (1937) and by Anderson (1944) in Goniobasis sp. and Goniobasis depygis, respectively, from McCormicks Creek, Indiana. It was again reported by Vernberg (1952) from Goniobasis livescens collected from Clifty Creek in southern Indiana. She found that, although the cercariae penetrate several species of fish, they encyst only in a single species of darter, the name of which was not given. C. kentuckiensis was observed by me to penetrate and encyst in laboratory raised guppies, Lebistes reticulatus. The metacercariae were fed later to a starved 1-day-old chick. Seven days after the feeding, eggs of a trematode appeared in the feces of the chick and 3 days later 13 adult worms of the genus Mesostephanus were recovered from the small intestine of the chick. Other chicks fed this