Morphological observations on three Baltic species of Corynosoma Lühe, 1905 (Acanthocephala, Polymorphidae)

  • Sonja Leidenberger Department of Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Skövde
  • Sven Boström Department of Zoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm
  • Matthew T. Wayland Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2019.514
Keywords: Baltic Sea, grey seals, ringed seals, sem, thorny-headed worms

Abstract

Necropsies of Baltic grey (Halichoerus grypus) and ringed seals (Pusa hispida) presented a rare opportunity to study their acanthocephalan fauna. Both species hosted adults of three species of the genus Corynosoma Lühe, 1904, namely C. magdaleni Montreuil, 1958, C. semerme (Forsell, 1904) Lühe 1911 and C. strumosum (Rudolphi, 1802) Lühe 1904. A comparative morphological analysis of these three species of Corynosoma, combining both light and scanning electron microscopy, was performed for the first time. Sexual dimorphism in the size and shape of the trunk was observed in both C. magdaleni and C. semerme, but there was insufficient material to investigate this phenomenon in C. strumosum. Genital spines were not observed in any of the female acanthocephalans. Three possible explanations for the presence of genital spines in some females, but not others are (i) cryptic speciation, (ii) phenotypic variation and (iii) loss by extraction or shearing when the copulatory cap is released. Copulatory caps were observed on female C. semerme. The size and morphology showed considerable variability and all caps were strongly autofluoresecent.

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Published
2019-04-10
How to Cite
Leidenberger, S., Boström, S., & Wayland, M. T. (2019). Morphological observations on three Baltic species of Corynosoma Lühe, 1905 (Acanthocephala, Polymorphidae). European Journal of Taxonomy, (514). https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2019.514
Issue
No. 514 (2019): Morphological observations on three Baltic species of Corynosoma Lühe, 1905 (Acanthocephala, Polymorphidae)
Section
Zoology

Copyright (c) 2019 Sonja Leidenberger, Sven Boström, Matthew T. Wayland

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