寄生虫と種の豊富さ : コメツキガニとホソウミニナ,吸虫の関係

概要

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The sand-bubbler crab Scopimera globosa is infected by the digenean trematode Gynaecotyla squatarolae in some tidal flats of Honshu and Kyushu Islands. The trematode utilizes three host taxa; potamidid snails (probably Batillaria cumingi) as the first intermediate host, S. globosa as the second, and some shorebirds as the third, definitive host. It may be hypothesized that the trematode occurs only in those habitats where all the hosts exist. In order to test the hypothesis, I examined the occurrence of crabs infected by the trematode in habi-tats with and without snails. The results demonstrated that infection of crabs by trematodes occurred only where snails were present. Therefore, trematode infection of S. globosa may imply high species richness in the local assemblages of the host species.