Light and Scanning Electron Microscopic Observations on Grillotia erinaceus (Cestoda: Trypanorhyncha)

Abstract

In the present study, the plerocercoids of Grillotia erinaceus were obtained from the wall of the anterior oesophagus, stomach, pyloric caeca and liver of teleost Black Sea whiting Merlangius merlangus and adults were collected from the intestine of elasmobranch thornback rays Raja clavata caught by commercial fishing vessels off Sinop, Turkey. Standard parasitological investigation methods were applied and morphological diagnostic features of the whole parasite, bothria, scolex, tentacular armatures and tentacles were studied in detail using a light and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The plerocercoids of this parasite had a total length of 5.96 mm on average and this was 21.6 mm on average in adults. The measurement data of all morphological diagnostics are provided and photomicrographs of each part of the parasite are presented. This study also provides the detailed morphological features of both plerocercoids and adults of G. erinaceus in M. merlangus and R. clavata for the first time in the Turkish coasts of the Black Sea.