Occurrence of Larval Helminths in Gammarus pulex (L.) from the Braid Burn, Edinburgh

Abstract

IN the course of investigations on larval helminths while working in the University of Edinburgh, I found that Gammarus pulex (L.), which occurred abundantly throughout the year in the Braid Burn, near the Department of Zoology, harboured larval helminths of five different kinds—two species of Acanthocephala, Polymorphus minutus (Goeze) and Echinorhynchus truttœ Schrank, two species of cysticercoids new to science, and one form of plagiorchid metacercaria. So far as I am aware, this is the first record of a larval cestode infection in Gammarus pulex (L.) in Great Britain.