Porocephalus Crotali

Name

Greek: poros = opening, cephalon = head.

Classification

Species of Pentastomida.

Life Cycle

Figure 1.

Fig. 1

Life cycle of Porocephalus crotali. 1 Adults live in the lungs of final hosts (snakes: Crotalus spp.). 2 Embryonated eggs are passed with feces. 3–9 If intermediate hosts (mice) swallow eggs, the four-legged primary larva (3) hatches in the intestine, penetrates the intestinal wall, and finally becomes encapsulated in host tissues. In such capsules molts occur until infectivity (L7) is reached. 10–12 If the final host (snake) ingests infected mice, the L7 leaves the intestine after hatching from the host-tissue capsule and enters the lung of the snake. There, maturity is reached after at least three more molts. BH bore hook, EX extremity with a claw, IS inner eggshell, LA primary larva, MH mouth hooks, OS outer eggshell