The Identification of Taenia tenuicollis Rudolphi, 1819, in North America

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Taenia tenuicollis and its larval stage, originally named Cysticercus talpae, were described from European hosts by Rudolphi (1819). This tapeworm was first recognized as part of the helminth fauna of North America when Skinker (1935) reported the larvae, both cysticerci and coenuri, in the livers of muskrats in Ontario, Canada, and the adult cestode in mink from the same locale. She presented a review of the European literature and thus clarified the early nomenclature of this cestode. She also listed the first North American host records in muskrat and mink in Ontario, Canada. Since Skinker's paper, published records of this tapeworm's occurrence in the United States have been limited to a tentative diagnosis cf the larvae in Michigan muskrats by Ameel (1942). Skinker's drawings of larval hook shapes corresponded closely with the adult and larval hooks found in this survey and were used as the basis for diagnosis of the larval cestodes. Baylis (1935) reported the cysticercus from muskrat in Shropshire and Perthshire, England, where the North American muskrat had been introduced. Baylis, unaware of Skinker's record in Canada, postulated that the muskrats had acquired a European parasite after their introduction into England. He had also found the cysticercus in glareolus, Microtus agrestis, Arvicola amphibius and the grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in Great Britain, and in Evotomys rufocanus from Norway. Warwick (1936) also found the muskrat in Shropshire and Perthshire, England, infected with the larvae and records an instance of over 100 larvae in one liver. Ameel (1942) found cestode larvae in muskrats from southern and central Michigan, which he recognized as similar to larvae of T. tenuicollis. However, he would not positively indentify them as such without feeding experiments to recover the adult cestode.