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Population biology of Meiogymnophallus minutus (Trematoda: Gymnophallidae) in cockles from the Exe Estuary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Cameron P. Goater
Cameron P. Goater
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Hatherly Laboratories, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4PS Present address: Zoologisches Museum der Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland
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Spatial, seasonal and age-related differences in infection of the cockle, Cerastoderma edule, with the trematode Meiogymnophallus minutus were studied on the Exe Estuary, England. Prevalence of infection was 100% across all samples with mean abundances between approximately 300 and 1000 larvae per host (maximum=4930 larvae). Aggregration of M. minutus in cockles was extremely high (variancermean ratios >100) and increased linearly as abundance increased. Mean abundance was highest in cockles collected from muddy substrates where the average age of cockles was high. In summer, numbers of larvae fell to less than half of spring levels and then increased after infection by a new wave of cercariae in August. Cockles accumulated larvae for up to 2 y but not thereafter, and levels of aggregation fell in the oldest age class. A peaked pattern of mean abundance and aggregation with age may be a result of parasite-induced death of older hosts or may be due to the inability of cercariae to establish in older hosts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 163 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1993

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