Leucochloridium variae

Leucochloridium variae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Class: Trematoda
Order: Strigeidida
Family: Leucochloridiidae
Genus: Leucochloridium
Subgenus: Leucochloridium
Species: L. variae
Binomial name
Leucochloridium variae
McIntosh, 1932

Leucochloridium variae, common name brown-banded broodsac, is a species of a parasite that invades snails and makes their eye stalks swollen, pulsating and colourful.

This maggot-resembling feature attracts birds. The bird rips off the eye stalk and eats it and later on the parasite's egg is dropped with the bird's feces. Similar life-histories are found in most species in the genus Leucochloridium including Leucochloridium paradoxum.

The snail regenerates a replacement eye stalk, which also becomes infected by the parasite.

Director Harold Tichenor made a film Life Cycle of Leucochloridium variae in 1969.[1]

Contents

Distribution

North America: Iowa[2], Nebraska[3][4], Ohio[5] and others.

Hosts

Intermediate host of Leucochloridium variae include:

There was no finding of difference in length of shells in parasited an in non-parasited snails.[5]

Hosts of Leucochloridium variae include:

References

  1. ^ Life Cycle of Leucochloridium variae entry on IMSb. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  2. ^ a b Bernard Fried, Paul D. Lewis, Jr. and Kelly Beers 1995. Thin-Layer Chromatographic and Histochemical Analyses of Neutral Lipids in the Intramolluscan Stages of Leucochloridium variae (Digenea, Leucochloridiidae) and the Snail Host, Succinea ovalis. Journal of Parasitology, volume 81(1): 112-114.
  3. ^ Michael A. Barger & John A. Hnida. 2008. Survey of Trematodes from Terrestrial Gastropods and Small Mammals in Southeastern Nebraska, U.S.A. Comparative Parasitology 75(2):308-314. doi: 10.1654/4357.1
  4. ^ a b c Bakke, Tor A. 1982. The Morphology and Taxonomy of Leucochloridium (L.) variae Mclntosh (Digenea, Leucochloridiidae) from the Nearctic as Revealed by Light and Scanning Electron Microscopy. Zoologica Scripta 11(2):87–100 doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.1982.tb00521.x
  5. ^ a b A Burky & Daniel J. Hornbach. 1979 Comparison of carbon and nitrogen content of infected and uninfected snails, Succinea ovalis, and the trematode Leucochloridium variae. Journal of Parasitology 65(3): 371-374
  6. ^ Fried B., Beers K., Lewis PD Jr. 1993 (February). Lipids in the broodsac of Leucochloridium variae (Digenea, Leucochloridiidae) and its snail host Succinea ovalis. Int. J. Parasitol. 23(1):129-131.
  7. ^ Parasites of the Robin. accessed 12 February 2009.

External links