This study, undertaken as a component of the global Dracunculiasis Eradication Program (DEP), was designed to provide molecular tools to distinguish Dracunculus medinensis, the nematode causing human dracunculiasis, from other tissue-dwelling nematodes, including other Dracunculus species that infect humans and other animals. DNA was extracted from D. medinensis and from a closely related speci...

A myxosporean infecting the gill filaments of the freshwater teleost Semaprochilodus insignis collected in the Trombetas River (Central Amazonian Region, Brazil) is described using light and electron microscopy. The spores were ovoid in frontal view with round extremities and measured 15.4 ± 0.6 μm in total length, 12.4 ± 0.5 μm wide and 8.1 ± 0.7 μm thick; the spore valves (up to 0.4 μm) were ...

The palatability of various organs (body wall, cuvierian gland, viscera, longitudinal muscle bands and gonads) of sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota (Brandt) was studied by feeding experiments, performed on a freshwater fish Sarotherodon mossambicus and a marine fish Theraponjarbua. The result shows that the food pellets of the body wall were less toxic and more palatable than the gonads, vis...

Description of a new species from Australia, belonging to the subgenus Selenkothuria (Holothuria, Aspidochirotida). A dichotomous key of the thirteen valid species included in the subgenus is also given. The species H. perrieri Thandar, 1977 and H. spinea Cherbonnier, 1988 are considered as non valid.

Seeds from Pachira brevipes from white-sand forest and Pachira insignis from clay forest were placed in a reciprocal transplant experiment that manipulated herbivore presence. Pachira insignis experienced 80 percent leaf loss in both habitats from herbivores, causing 79 percent mortality in white-sand compared with 47 percent in clay in just 3 mo. Pachira brevipes suffered pathogen attack in bo...

1. Stress-relaxation tests and creep tests were performed on the bodywall dermis of two sea cucumbers, Actinopyga echinites (Jager) and Holothuria leucospilota Brandt. 2. These viscoelastic connective tissues had mechanical properties which agreed well with those of a four-element mechanical model composed of two Maxwell elements connected in parallel. 3. The elastic stiffness of the dermis of ...