Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-thh2z Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-23T19:23:45.486Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Some Phenomena associated with Parasitism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

F. A. Potts
F. A. Potts
Affiliation:
Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

(1) The marked peculiarity in infection of Decapod Crustacea by certain parasites is the alteration of the sexual characters of the hosts (castration parasitaire of Giard). This has a twofold nature, viz.:—

(a) Sterility. In both sexes gonads dwindle and may entirely abort.

(b) Assumption of characters of other sex. In the male the external characters proper to the female are assumed in greater or less degree. The testis is transformed into a hermaphrodite gland, either while still infected by the parasite (incipient hermaphroditism of hermit crabs) or when freed from its influence (ripe ovotestis in spider crab). The reverse effects are not found in the female.

(2) This phenomenon occurs throughout the Invertebrata, but though sterility is a frequent consequence, the alteration of sex characters is never so definite as in the Crustacea. Analogous observations on parasitism in the Vertebrata have not been made.

(3) In the Insecta, parasitism appears to influence caste production. Grassi suggested that the sterility of soldiers and workers in Termites is due to protozoan parasites. In ants a giant caste is known (mermithergates) always harbouring a nematode worm.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 2 , Issue 1-2 , May 1909 , pp. 42 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1909

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boulenger, C. (1908). On the hermaphroditism of the amphipod Orchestia deshayesii Andouin. London Proc. Zool. Soc. pp. 42–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faxon, W. (1885). Revision of the Cambaridae of America. Mem. Mus. Zool. Comp. Harvard, vol. x.Google Scholar
Giard, A. (1887). La castration parasitaire. Bull. soc. Dep. du Nord, ser. 2, vol. x., pp. 1–23.Google Scholar
Giard, A. (1888). La castration parasitaire (nouvelles recherches). Bull. soc. Dep. du Nord, ser. 3, vol. i., pp. 12–45.Google Scholar
Grassi, (1893, 1896). The constitution and development of Termites. Atti Acc. Gioenia sci. nat., Catania, ser 4, vols, vi., vii. (English Translation Q. J. Micro. Sci. vols, xxxix., xl.)Google Scholar
Perez, J. (1886). Des effets du parasitisme des Stylops sur les apiaires du genre Andrena. Act. Linn. Soc., Bordeaux, vol. xl., pp. 21–54.Google Scholar
Potts, F. A. (1906). The modifications of the sexual characters of the hermiterals caused by the parasite Peltogaster. Q. J. Micro. Sci. vol. l., pp. 599–621.Google Scholar
Smith, Geoffrey (1905). Note on a gregarine which may cause the parasitic castration of its host. Mitt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, Bd. xvii., pp. 406–410.Google Scholar
Smith, Geoffrey (1906). Rhizocephala. Fauna u. Flora Golfes Neapels, vol. xxix., pp. 65–98.Google Scholar
Turner, G. A. (1908). Bilharziosis in South Africa. Parasitology, vol. i., p. 195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, (1907). The Polymorphism of Ants. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. vol. xxiii., pp. 1–193.Google Scholar