Experimental life cycle of Protostrongylus boughtoni (Nematoda: Metastrongyloidea), a lung worm of snowshoe hares, Lepus americanus

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Abstract
The life cycle of the lungworm Protostrongylus boughtoni Goble and Dougherty, 1943 was completed in intermediate and definitive hosts. Larvae developed to the infective third-stage in the foot of the snail Vallonia pulchella (Miiller, 1774) in 28–30 days at 18 °C. First-, second-, third-, and fourth-stage larvae are described. Patent infections developed in laboratory-reared snowshoe hares, Lepus americanus americanus, each given 50 third-stage P. boughtoni larvae per os 25 to 27 days postexposure. Periods of patency ranged from 41 to 104 days. Patent infections developed in domestic rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, Dutch Belted strain, given 50 or 150 larvae in 25 to 26 days postexposure, but periods of patency ranged from 7 to 13 days and larval output was very low.
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