An ultrastructural study of the cercarial excretory system in Bucephaloides gracilescens and Prosorhynchus squamatus

The ultrastructure of the flame cells, capillaries, collecting tubes, excretory bladder, excretory atrium, caudal vesicle, lateral caudal ducts and excretory pores of cercariae of Bucephaloides gracilescens (Rudolphi, 1819) Hopkins, 1954 and Prosorhynchus squamatus Odhner, 1905 (Digenea: Bucephalidae) is described. Both species are essentially similar except for some details. The terminal parts of the protonephridia have all the structural features that are typical of trematodes. The collecting tubes in the cercarial body are composed of cells that are wrapped around the lumen. The main collecting tubes are joined to the excretory bladder syncytium by septate junctions. Features of P. squamatus excretory bladder epithelium indicate that it is involved in secretory activity, but this is not the case in B. gracilescens. In both species the luminal surface of the excretory bladder epithelium is increased by lamellae, and the basal plasma membrane forms invaginations. In the bladder syncytium of P. squamatus both apical lamellae and basal invaginations are more developed and mitochondria are also more numerous. The excretory atrium is lined by a syncytium with nucleated cytons located in the surrounding parenchyma. The atrium lining is not continuous with the body tegument and possesses specific secretory inclusions and a thick glycocalyx. Septate junctions connect the atrium syncytium to the excretory bladder epithelium at its anterior end and to the syncytial excretory epithelium lining the caudal vesicle and the lateral caudal ducts at its posterior. In the excretory pores the caudal duct syncytium is joined to the tegument by septate desmosomes.