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Acta Parasitologica, Vol.43, No. 3, 1998, 111-115
Radev Valentin (1), Kanev Ivan (1)*, Nollen Paul (2), Dacheva Raina (1) - Light, transmission and scanning electron microscope observation of body spines of Philophthalmus lucipetus (Trematoda) during maturation in the eye cavity of birds.

(1) Institute of Experimental Pathology and Parasitology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bl. 25, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria; (2) Department of Biological Sciences, Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL 61455, USA
* present address: Harold W.Manter Laboratory of Parasitology, W-529 Nebraska Hall, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0514 USA
ABSTRACT

Light (LM), transmission (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to study the topography and morphology of the body spines of P. lucipetus during maturation of one day-old preadults to 120-day-old adults. Observations with LM showed long and thin spine-like formations, which can be clearly seen in young specimens of 10-days-old, and which are missing in most of the older parasites. Using TEM and SEM the spine-like formations were found not to be true spines, but belong to the soft tissues of the tegument - the distal cytoplasm. Observed with SEM, the tegument showed papilla-like structures which, in the anterior part of the body were different in form, size and distribution pattern from those in the posterior part. The body spines of the eye fluke P. lucipetus are different from the real spines of the parasites living in the host intestine.


KEY WORDS: Philophthalmus lucipetus, body spines, LM, TEM, SEM
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