The Morphology and Life History of the Cestode, Bertiella Studeri

Abstract

Summary The problem of specific identity in the genus Bertiella is discussed. Three mature cestodes from a monkey, Macacus rhesus, are identified tentatively as Bertiella studeri. The animal probably acquired the infection in India, but had been in Hamburg for at least six months. The worms and eggs are described and life history experiments are reported. Eggs from gravid proglottids were fed to twenty-four species of free-living mites, collected from different locations in the vicinity of Hamburg. Onchospheres and developing larvae were recovered from the body cavity of Notaspis coleoptratus, Scutovertex minutus, Scheloribates laevigatus and Galumna sp. Cysticercoids were removed from S. laevigatus and Galumna sp. They were spherical, to oval, to pyriform, 0.1 to 0.15 mm. in diameter, and provided with small cercomeres. It is clear therefore that Bertiella, like other anoplocephaline cestodes, Moniezia and Cittotaenia, utilizes free-living mites as intermediate hosts.