Diplostomum adamsi sp.n.: description, life cycle, and pathogenesis in the retina of Perca flavescens

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Abstract
Forty-two perch eyes (Perca flavescens) infected with metacercariae of Diplostomum adamsi were fed to a herring gull (Larus argentatus). Eighty adults were recovered from the intestine 10 days later. They were characterized by their small size (1.5 to 2.1 mm), asymmetrical anterior testis, and the absence of vitellaria in forebody anterior to the middle of the ventral sucker.Eggs of D. adamsi passed by the gull embryonated in 22 days at 22 °C and hatched when exposed to light. Miracidia penetrated snails of the species Lymnaea elodes and L. stagnalis. Forty days later straight-tailed cercariae with six pairs of caudal bodies were released from both lymnaeids. They penetrated and developed in P. flavescens but not in Salvelinus namaycush, Catostomus commersoni, Semotilus atromaculatus, or Carassius auratus. In P. flavescens, metacercariae were found in clusters in the peripheral retina, in a cavity between the photoreceptor cells and the pigment epithelium. The photoreceptor cells were disorganized but not destroyed, unlike those in the eyes of Gasterosteus aculeatus parasitized by D. scudderi.

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