The Morphology and Life-History of Levinseniella minuta (Trematoda: Microphallidae)

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Abstract
Metacercariae encysted in snails, Hydrobia minuta (syn. Paludestrina minuta) and Amnicola limosa, collected in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, developed to maturity in mice and golden hamsters. Infection in snails, when present, was very heavy; hundreds of larvae in the snail. Adults were identified as L. minuta, described by Price, 1934 from the scaup duck, Nyroca affinis. The worms did not persist for a long time in mice. Eggs of the parasite are operculate and on deposition contain well-formed miracidia. They do not hatch until eaten by the snail. Two generations of sporocysts are produced. Cercariae, without tails or acetabulae, emerge from sporocysts in an immature condition and encyst in the snail where they were produced. They grow and mature in their cysts.
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