The Animal Parasites of ManFantham, Harold Benjamin
Science
The Animal Parasites of Man
Fantham, Harold Benjamin
Medical parasitology
(3) _Deposition of the Ova._--Soon after their formation, the
_Monogenea_ (ectoparasitic trematodes) deposit round the place of
their attachment on the skin or the gills or other organs of their
hosts, eggs which attach themselves by means of their filaments. The
embryonic development thus takes place outside the parent. This also
holds good for the eggs of many endoparasitic species, although as a
rule in these the eggs are always retained for a longer time in the
uterus. Moreover, they usually here undergo a part or a whole of their
development, and are eventually deposited in those organs in which the
adult forms are parasitic, but this is not always the case, as the egg,
_e.g._, of _F. hepatica_ appears in bile (and fæces) quite unchanged.
By the natural passages they eventually get out of the body, and in
cases where such do not exist, as in the case of the blood-vessels, the
eggs pass out by means of the kidneys.
(4) _The embryonic development_, after irregular segmentation of the
ovum into a number of blastomeres, leads to the formation of a solid
blastosphere or morula, which is surrounded by a cellular investing
membrane (yolk envelope), while the principal mass of the cells forms
the embryo, which uses for its nourishment the yolk cells, which have
in the meantime disintegrated (_cf._ footnote, p. 223). Usually,
after the ova have reached water the embryos hatch out, leaving the
yolk envelope in the egg-shell; in other cases, however, the embryos
only hatch out after having been subjected to the influence of the
intestinal juices, that is to say, in the intestine of an intermediate
host which has ingested with its food the ova that have escaped from
the primary host.
(5) _The post-embryonic development_ of the Trematodes is accomplished
in various ways; the process is the most simple in the ectoparasitic
species (_Monogenea_), the young of which should certainly be
regarded as larvæ, because they possess characteristics (cilia,
simple gut, etc.) that are lacking in the adult worms, but which,
nevertheless, pass into the adult state direct after a relatively
simple metamorphosis. In the _Holostomata_,[263] a group found chiefly
in the intestine of aquatic birds, and which rarely occur in other
vertebrates, the ova develop in water. The young are ciliated all over,
and, after having entered an intermediate host (leeches, molluscs,
arthropods, amphibians, fishes) living in the water, they undergo a
metamorphosis into a second larval stage; they then encyst and await
transmission into the final host, where they become adult Metastatic
trematodes, _i.e._, trematodes without asexually produced generations
(p. 229).
[263] _Holostomata_: Prostomata with (in addition to the oral and
ventral suckers) a third fixation apparatus, generally on a separate
part of the body.
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