Armadillidium vulgare (Isopoda) as an Intermediate Host of Plagiorhynchus cylindraceus (Acanthocephala) and Isopod Response to Infection

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Abstract
A. vulgare (Isopoda) fed eggs of P. cylindraceus (Acanthocephala) differed with age in resistance to the parasite. Only 9.2% of the isopods > 1 yr old and longer than 9.5 mm became infected, but 71.4% of those < 9 mo. old and shorter than 8.6 mm developed infections. Adult isopods had a thicker alimentary canal intima than did juveniles, mounted a hemocyte response that killed acanthors in the gut epithelium, melanized the parasites and developed an increase in 1 hemolymph protein component. Juveniles made none of these responses. These factors are thought to account for the difference in susceptibility of juvenile and adult isopods. [Eggs were from P. cylindraceus obtained from robins (Turdus migratorius) and starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).].