The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 02 (of 10)Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 02 (of 10)
Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Animals
It has been pointed out that the Polyclads, Triclads, and Rhabdocoels are
carnivorous, and that in each of these groups sporadic cases of parasitism
occur. In other words, when the prey is much larger than the Turbellarian,
the latter tends to become a parasite, and we can trace the development of
the parasitic habit from the gradual association of Turbellaria with
Ascidians, Crustacea, Molluscs, and Polyzoa merely for protective purposes,
through the adoption, not only of the body of the host for shelter, but of
its flesh for food; though it is only in some Rhabdocoels (_Graffilla_,
etc.) that there exists a degeneration corresponding to the easier mode of
nutrition and simpler life. The Trematodes,[70] however, are wholly
parasitic, either on the outer surface, the gills, or internal organs of
their host, which is almost always a {52}Vertebrate. Some Trematodes lodge
in the mouth; others wander down the oesophagus into the stomach or
intestine, where they fix themselves to the mucous membrane. Again, others
work their way into the digestive glands by the ducts, and thus become
further and further removed from the external world, and more adapted to
live in the particular organs of that host in which they best flourish. The
most important result of the adoption of this internal habitat by
endoparasitic Trematodes is, however, seen in their life-history. If a
liver-fluke were to deposit its million or so of eggs in the bile-ducts of
the sheep, and these were to develop _in situ_, the host could not
withstand the increased drain upon its vital resources, and host and
parasites would perish together. Hence it is clear that the infection of a
second host by Trematodes is highly necessary, whether they be
_ectoparasitic_, in which case the infection is easily effected, when two
hosts are in contact, by the adult worms, as well as when they are apart,
by free-swimming larvae. In _endoparasitic_ Trematodes it is brought about
by the migration of the young to the outer world, their entrance into a,
usually, Invertebrate host and their asexual multiplication within it, and
the capture and deglutition of this "intermediate host" by the final
Vertebrate one. Within the latter the immature parasites find out the organ
in which their parents flourished, and here they too grow and attain
maturity. The chances of any one egg of an endoparasitic Trematode
producing eventually an adult are, therefore, far less favourable than in
the case of an ectoparasitic form. In other words, while the former must
lay a great number of small eggs, the latter need only deposit a
(comparatively) few large ones, and this fact has a corresponding influence
on the structure of the genitalia in the two cases. The Digenea, which
employ two hosts in a lifetime, have accordingly a different generative
mechanism from that of the Monogenea. The great need of the latter is a
powerful apparatus for adhering to the surface of the body of its host;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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