Life History of Petasiger chandleri (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) from the Pied-Billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps podiceps, with Some Comments on Other Species of Petasiger

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Abstract
When swallowed or passively taken by respiratory currents into the mouth of various spp. of fish and tadpoles, Cercaria chandleri, within half an hour became encysted as metacercariae in the submucosa of the gill lamellae, the branchial area, and esophagus. In such metacercariae, when fed to canaries, ducklings, chicks, mice and a garter snake, no development occurred except in the canaries, in 2 of which 8 young worms representing a new sp. of Petasiger were recovered from a thousand or more metacercariae fed. Adult specimens of P. chandleri were found in the duodenum of four piedbilled grebes, collected in the Lake Itasca region. These worms differ from P. nitidus, also from another N. American grebe, and also from the other desc. spp. in a number of morphological characters, but these, together with differences in the cercaria and in life history, clearly indicate that P. chandleri is specifically distinct. Caution should be used in lumping together spp. in this genus, even if the morphological characters distinguishing the adult are comparatively trivial.

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