CORYNOSOMA AUSTRALE
This types parasite worms also known as thorny-headed worms because there is eversible proboscis that armed with spines on their head. The proboscis is used as a tool to hold the gut wall of their host. This species of the thorny-headed worms usually infects the sea lions or the semi-aquatic fin-footed marine mammals. But, there are not infect the sea lions exclusively, but the C. Australe has been found in the south American Penguin called Magellanic Penguins.
The Corynosoma Australe have same life cycles like the others same phylum. They started their lifecycles from the egg, the egg will release by the mature female C. Australe, the eggs are carried by the host dung. Then, an arthropod or marine exoskeleton species, it is the first host for the C. Australe will ingest the egg. Usually, their first host will be a small shrimp or an amphipod like a Crustacean. A spindle-shaped embryo is released from the eggs and this occurs when the egg inside the Crustacean, after the spindle-shaped embryo released, it will develop into juvenile form acanthocephalan or known as Acanthella (at this stage it the larva is developing the definitive organs). The gut wall of the host is an important thing for the Acanthella, they use it as the transport to move into the body cavity. When the Acanthella larva, it will develop into a cystacanth, the intermediate stage of their development. The parasitic worm will be released once the first intermediated host is consumed by the definitive or the paratenic host. The Cystacanth will pierce the gut wall of the definitive host when they become an adult cystacanth. This will happen when the cystacanth proboscis has been everted. After feeding, the adult Cystacanth sexual organ will develop. The adult worms will mate after the sexual maturation achieved, then the embryos will develop in the female worms then it will repeat their life cycles. But, the parasitic worm will just only form a Cyst when they within a Paratenic host( fish).
For your information, the Fish will be their Paratenic Host for C. Australe. It is not important to infect the fish, this because fish is not very important for their lifecycles. But, the Paratenic host still important to bridge the ecological gap between the tiny amphipods and seals. But, not only that will eat this Paratenic host(fish), as we know almost all of the marine species eat fish and fish is their primary food source. And this can relate with the Magellanic Penguin, for your information, this penguin has the same diet as the seal and sea lion. This makes things more clear on how the penguins are infected by the parasite that infects also to infect the seals. Cross species infection can be occurs more than possible, this is because of the similarity of physiological between the penguins and the Pinneped. Within the Pinneped host the C. Austrake can produce a lot of egg, meanwhile they also can survive perfectly in the Penguins. Thanks for reading my post and keep following My Biologist’s Adventure.
SOURCE:
- Hernández-Orts, Jesús Servando; Brandão, Martha; Georgieva, Simona; Raga, Juan Antonio; Crespo, Enrique Alberto; Luque, José Luis; Aznar, Francisco Javier (2017-10-05). "From mammals back to birds: Host-switch of the acanthocephalan Corynosoma australe from pinnipeds to the Magellanic penguin Spheniscus magellanicus". PLOS ONE. 12 (10): e0183809. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0183809. ISSN 1932-6203.
- Leung, Tommy (2017-11-24). "Parasite of the Day: Corynosoma australe". Parasite of the Day. Retrieved 2017-12-12.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corynosoma_australe
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