Life cycle and structure of the fish digenean Brachyphallus crenatus (Hemiuridae).

Cystophorous cercariae from Retusa obtusa (Montagu) (Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia, Retusidae) develop into adults of Brachyphallus crenatus (Rudolphi, 1802) Odhner, 1905 (Hemiuridae). The free-swimming cercariae were ingested by laboratory-reared Acartia tonsa Dana, and the cercarial body was injected into the hemocoel of the copepod. Two-week-old metacercariae held at 15 C were infective to stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus. The cercariae of B. crenatus are very similar to the cercariae of Hemiurus luehei Odhner, 1905, and Lecithocladium excisum (Rudolphi, 1819) Lühe, 1901 (Hemiuridae), which develop in closely related opisthobranch snails. Scanning electron microscopy of metacercariae and adults of B. crenatus revealed the annular plications of most of the external surface to be scalelike. The area surrounding the genital pore and the presomatic pit was densely plicated.