First record of encysted metacercariae in hydrozoan jellyfishes and ctenophores of the southern Atlantic.
Three species of pelagic coelenterates and ctenophores captured in Mar del Plata port, Buenos Aires, Argentina, were examined for digenean parasites. Encysted metacercariae were observed and collected. Cysts were found in the mesoglea of the hydromedusae Phialidium sp. and Liriope tetraphylla, and in the ectenophore Mnemiopsis macradyi. The morphology of the worms resembles that of the lepocreadiid digeneans. This is the first record for a metacercaria encysted in hydromedusae or ctenophores.
Martorelli
S R
SR
Centro de Estudios Parasitologicos y Vectores (CEPAVE), La Plata, Argentina.
D000818:Animals; D001118:Argentina; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000469:parasitology*; D037401:Scyphozoa / Q000469:parasitology*; D014200:Trematoda / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology