Investigation of Paradiplozoon homoion (Monogenea, Diplozoidae) life cycle under experimental conditions

Diplozoids (Diplozoidae, Monogenea) are fish ectoparasites with a direct life cycle without intermediate hosts. Their free swimming larva, the oncomiracidium, hatches from eggs, invades a fish host and metamorphoses into a post-oncomiracidial larval stage, the diporpa. Later, two diporpae fuse and live as a pair in cross-copulation during their adult life. An experimental study was designed to investigate the life cycle of Paradiplozoon homoion (Monogenea, Diplozoidae) parasitizing their common fish hosts, gudgeon (Gobio gobio). A total of 35 gudgeon parasitized by diplozoids were collected from their natural environment of the Vlára River, Czech Republic, and kept together in tanks with 41 non-parasitized gudgeons reared in a laboratory environment. In total, 100 adult specimens of P. homoion were collected from the Vlára River gudgeon and a new parasite generation was expected to be observed on fish reared in the laboratory environment. Eight days after the first diplozoid eggs appeared on fish gills, the presence of diporpae with one or two pairs of clamps was noted. The appearance of the first juveniles was recorded at the same time as diporpae. Development of P. homoion from egg to sexually mature adult stage took 33 days at a constant temperature of 20 degrees C. The development of eggs in adults of the second generation was observed 2 days after the first observation of these adults. The behavior of oncomiracidia was also studied and this free swimming stage of diplozoids survived for 22 h in the absence of a host. When host fish were experimentally infected by oncomiracidia, diporpae were found attached to the fish gill apparatus within 2 h of infection.