First experimental observations on the development of Rhabdochona Denudata (Nematoda: Rhabdochonidae) in the intermediate host

Two species of mayfly nymphs, Habroleptoides modesta (Hagen) and Habrophlebia lauta (Eaton) (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae), were found as suitable experimental intermediate hosts of the fish nematode Rhabdochona denudata (Dujardin, 1845) (Rhabdochonidae), an intestinal parasite of Palaearctic cyprinids. The parasite's eggs were obtained from nematode gravid females parasitizing the European chub, Leuciscus cephalus (L.), of the Rokytná River, Czech Republic. At the water temperature of 9°C, the eggs of R. denudata were ingested by the intermediate host and the hatched, toothed (with a minute cephalic boring tooth) first-stage larvae about 200 μm long penetrated into the body cavity of the mayfly. There the larvae grew and moulted twice (on 16-18 and 30-35 days p.i.) before attaining the third stage, which is already infective for the fish definitive host. Infective larvae of this stage were about 1.5 mm long and their morphology resembled that of adults except for the vestibule structure; they became encapsulated as in those of other congeneric species.