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Trematoda is a class of flatworms known as flukes or trematodes. They are obligate internal parasites with a complex life cycle requiring at least two hosts. The intermediate host, in which asexual reproduction occurs, is usually a snail. The definitive host, where the flukes sexually reproduce, is a vertebrate. Infection by trematodes can cause disease in all five traditional vertebrate classes: mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish.
Digenea is a class of trematodes in the Platyhelminthes phylum, consisting of parasitic flatworms with a syncytial tegument and, usually, two suckers, one ventral and one oral. Adults commonly live within the digestive tract, but occur throughout the organ systems of all classes of vertebrates. Once thought to be related to the Monogenea, it is now recognised that they are closest to the Aspidogastrea and that the Monogenea are more closely allied with the Cestoda. Around 6,000 species have been described to date.
The Aspidogastrea is a small group of flukes comprising about 80 species. It is a subclass of the trematoda, and sister group to the Digenea. Species range in length from approximately one millimeter to several centimeters. They are parasites of freshwater and marine molluscs and vertebrates. Maturation may occur in the mollusc or vertebrate host. None of the species has any economic importance, but the group is of very great interest to biologists because it has several characters which appear to be archaic.
Cyclocoelidae is a family of trematodes in the order Plagiorchiida.
Leucochloridium variae, the brown-banded broodsac, is a species of trematode whose life cycle involves the alternate parasitic infection of certain species of snail and bird. While there is no external evidence of the worm's existence within the bird host, the infection of the snail host is visible when its eye stalks become grotesquely engorged with the parasite's brood sacs. These brood sacks pulsate and move to imitate insect larva, attracting the parasite's next host, insectivore birds. The bird rips off the eye stalk and eats it, thus becoming infected. Later on, the parasite's eggs are dropped with the bird's feces. Similar life-histories are found in other species of the genus Leucochloridium, including Leucochloridium paradoxum.
Zoogonidae are a family of trematodes in the order Plagiorchiida.
Opecoelidae is a family of trematodes. It is the largest digenean family with over 90 genera and nearly 900 species, almost solely found in marine and freshwater teleost fishes. It was considered by Bray et al. to belong in the superfamily Opecoeloidea Ozaki, 1925 or the Brachycladioidea Odhner, 1905.
Pseudopecoeloides is a genus of trematodes in the family Opecoelidae.
Acetabulum in invertebrate zoology is a saucer-shaped organ of attachment in some annelid worms and flatworms. It is a specialised sucker for parasitic adaptation in trematodes by which the worms are able to attach on the host. In annelids, it is basically a locomotory organ for attaching to a substratum. The name also applies to the suction appendage on the arms of cephalopod molluscs such as squid, octopus, cuttlefish, Nautilus, etc.
Transversotrema elegans is a species of trematodes found from species of the labrid genus Choerodon on Heron Island and Lizard Island. It is characterised by its number of vitelline follicles enclosed by its cyclocoel and by the size of its testicle.
Transversotrema giganticum is a species of trematodes found in scarids on Heron Island and Lizard Island. It is characterised by its number of vitelline follicles enclosed by its cyclocoel and by the size of its testicle.
Allopodocotyle is a genus of trematodes in the family Opecoelidae.
Anomalotrema is a genus of trematodes in the family Opecoelidae.
Cainocreadium is a genus of trematodes in the family Opecoelidae. It has been synonymised with Apopodocotyle Pritchard, 1966, Cainocreadoides Nagaty, 1956, and Emmettrema Caballero y Caballero, 1946.
Opegaster is a genus of trematodes in the family Opecoelidae.
Peracreadium is a genus of trematodes in the family Opecoelidae. It is very similar to the related genus Cainocreadium Nicoll, 1909, and has been synonymised with the genera Anabathycreadium Salman & Srivastava, 1990, Indocreadium Salman & Srivastava, 1990, and Lebouria Nicoll, 1909.
Caudotestis is a genus of trematodes in the family Opecoelidae.
Holorchis is a genus of trematodes in the family Aephnidiogenidae.
Maculifer is a genus of trematodes in the family Opecoelidae.
Schistosoma hippopotami is a species of digenetic trematode that belongs to the genus of blood flukes (Schistosoma) that is found in sub-Saharan Africa. It primarily infects African hippopotamuses and has a more limited host range compared to other Schistosoma species.
References
- ↑ Peoples, Robert C.; Fried, Bernard (2014). "Form and function in the Digenea". In Toledo, Rafael; Fried, Bernard (eds.). Digenetic Trematodes. Springer. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-4939-0915-5.
- ↑ Littlewood, D. Timothy J.; Telford, Maximillian J.; Bray, Rodney A. (2004). "Protostomes and platyhelmintes: The worm's turn". In Cracraft, Joel; Donoghue, Michael J. (eds.). Assembling the Tree of Life. Oxford University Press. p. 220. ISBN 9780199729609.
- ↑ Rohde, K. (2002). "Subclass Aspidogastrea Faust & Tang, 1936". In Gibson, David Ian; Jones, Arlene; Bray, Rodney Alan (eds.). Keys to the Trematoda. CABI Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 9780851995472.
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