STUDIES ON LARVAE OF STRIGEOID TREMATODES FROM THE WOODS HOLE MASSACHUSETTS REGION

¹ American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th, Street, New York. New York 10024, and Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Metacercarial stages of a strigeid trematode were reported from the brain and eyes of Menidia menidia and Mugil cephalus at Beaufort, North Carolina by Hunter and Vernberg (1960) and from the brain of Fundulus heteroclitus taken in Chesapeake Bay by Abbott (1968). Strigeid metacercariae occur also on the brain of species of Fundulus in the Woods Hole, Massachusetts region. The only strigeid cercaria described from mid-Atlantic coast is Cercaria nassa Martin 1945. Attempts to infect Fundulus spp. with C. nassa were futile and attempts to infect avian species, egrets, herons, cormorants, and gulls with metacercariae from Fundulus heteroclitus gave only negative results. The cercaria and metacercaria are described. Cercaria nassa belongs to the larval group, Diplostomulum, and is named Diplostomum nassa (Martin, 1945), family Diplostomidae. The metacercaria from the brain of F. heteroclitus belongs to the larval group, Tetracotyle, family Strigeidae. Accordingly, the two larvae are members of entirely different groups.