Structure and Function of the Fibrillar Coat of Leptorhynchoides thecatus Eggs

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Abstract
L. thecatus eggs in fish [Lepomis cyanellus, L. gibbosus] feces were discovered to lack a thin, outer membrane present on eggs removed from body cavities of freshly collected worms; and to possess external structures which, with a light microscope, appeared as numerous fibrils. Scanning EM revealed the fibrils to be portions of a broad band of unwound fibrillar coat exposed after loss of the outer membrane. Fibrillar bands can entangle in filamentous algae [Pithophora], anchoring eggs at the feeding sites of amphipod intermediate hosts. Amphipods [Hyalella azteca] fed in containers of algae over which eggs with exposed fibrillar bands were added developed a significantly greater prevalence and intensity of acanthocephalan infection than did those fed in containers to which eggs were added before the algae.

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