Folia Parasitologica 50[3] 215-219 (2003) | DOI: 10.14411/fp.2003.038

Transmission electron microscopy of intra-tegumental sensory receptors in the forebody of Crepidostomum metoecus (Digenea: Allocreadiidae)

Zdeňka Žďárská, Jana Nebesářová

Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic

In the adult fish trematode Crepidostomum metoecus (Braun, 1900), four types of sensory receptors were observed inside the forebody tegument and one type beneath the tegument basal lamina. Two types of sensory receptors extend through the thickness of tegument and have a free cilium inside a pit (types I and II). Two types (III and IV) are nonciliate and entirely intra-tegumental in location. Type IV receptor with large horizontal and thin vertical rootlets was described earlier in aspidogastreans only. Below the basal lamina, nerve endings in close association with muscle fibres, comparable with those in the Aspidogastrea, were detected.

Keywords: Digenea, Crepidostomum metoecus, forebody tegument sensory receptors, transmission electron microscopy

Received: January 24, 2003; Accepted: March 21, 2003; Published: September 1, 2003  Show citation