Composition and Crystallization Patterns of Calcareous Corpuscles of Cestodes Grown in Different Classes of Hosts

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Abstract
The chemical composition and the crystallization patterns of the calcareous corpuscles of 4 and 6 species of cestodes, respectively, have been studied. Considerable variations were found in both areas. These seemed to be more related to the species of tapeworm than to the type of host in which the worms grew. Thus, very pronounced differences were found between the corpuscles of 2 larval worms (Taenia crassiceps and Mesocestoides corti), both of which developed in the peritoneal cavity of mice. On the contrary, the crystallization patterns of one fish tapeworm (larval Ligula intestinalis) corresponded upon heating to 600 or 900 C to what is found in such mammalian species as Taenia taeniaeformis, Bertiella studeri, and several others. The 300 C pattern of Ligula conformed to that found in another mammalian species, Mesocestoides corti, and a similar pattern has not yet been encountered in any other tapeworm, of mammalian or nonroammalian origin. The corpuscles of the chicken tapeworm Raillietina cesticillus, on the other hand, were characterized by the almost complete absence of Mg and the fact that ethylenediamine-isolated corpuscles showed a definite calcite pattern before subsequent heating. In other species, corpuscles isolated by this method have been amorphous with only those of Cysticercus cellulosae showing traces of calcite.

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