Morphology, homogonic development, and lack of a free-living generation in Strongyloides robustus (Nematoda, Rhabditoidea), a parasite of North American sciurids

Abstract

Adult females of Strongyloides robustus Chandler, 1942, a parasite of sciurids in North America, were found in the duodenal mucosa of 30 of 32 red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus (Erxleben)) collected in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. The parasitic female is illustrated and redescribed; characteristics include: body 3.8-8.0 mm long, cephalic extremity with X-shaped mouth and 8 circumoral lobes, ovaries spiralling around intestine, and tail bluntly rounded. Eggs in fresh feces contained tadpole-stage larvae. In fecal cultures, eggs hatched and larvae invariably developed to the filariform infective third stage; i.e. a free-living generation did not occur and is probably absent in S. robustus in Cape Breton and possibly other parts of North America. It is hypothesized that homogonically developing S. robustus might be more fecund or more efficiently transmitted than species of Strongyloides that exhibit both homogonic and heterogonic development. Larvae of S. robustus in fecal cultures, i.e. homogonic larvae, are described in detail. Intestinal walls of second- and third-stage larvae, as well as the lateral chords of young third-stage larvae, contained numerous round bodies, likely nutrient stores. Third-stage larvae were present within 2 days in cultures maintained at 30 degrees C, 4 days at 20 degrees C, and 7 days at 15 degrees C. They lived for at least 33 and 30 days at 15 degrees C and 20 degrees C, respectively. Third-stage larvae probably die when their nutrient stores are exhausted.