STUDIES ON DIGENETIC TREMATODES OF THE GENERA GYMNOPHALLUS AND PARVATREMA

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Abstract
Literature dealing with the morphology, life-history, and systematic relations of the gymnophalline trematodes is critically reviewed. Laboratory hatched eider ducks, Somateria mollissima, herring gulls, Larus argentatus, golden hamsters and white mice have been used as possible experimental hosts of these worms. Attempts to infect hamsters and mice by feeding metacercariae from Mya arenaria, Mytilus edulis, Hiatella arctica, and Gemma gemma were not successfuL Metacercariae from M arenaria and H arctica failed to infect eider ducks or herring gulls, whereas metacercariae from M edulis and from G gemma developed to sexual maturity in eider ducks. The latter worms are described as a new species, Parvatrema borealis. Descriptions are presented of adult worms of natural infection from the bursa Fabricii and from the gall bladder of eider ducks taken at Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Eggs from these worms were embryonated and used in fruitless attempts to infect various bivalve mollusks. Metacercariae transplanted from one to another lamellibranch species did not become established. Sporocysts and cercariae are described from M arenaria at Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Boothbay Harbor and from G gemma and H. arctica at Boothbay Harbor, The latter of these species is identified as Cercaria reesi Hutton, 1953.