Isolation of microcercous cercariae from snails caught in an endemic focus of Paragonimus uterobilateralis in Liberia, West Africa.

Microcercous cercariae have been recovered from the snail Homorus (Striosubulina) striatella RANG. which were collected in a focus of human lung fluke disease in Liberia, West Africa, and are here described. Metacercariae of Paragonimus uterobilateralis were isolated from freshwater crabs (Liberonautes latidactylus) captured at the same location, and at the same time, as the infected snails. The dimensions of the Liberian cercariae have been found to differ markedly from those of a cercaria from Cameroon previously described as that of Paragonimus africanus. The structure and dimensions of the Liberian cercariae clearly resemble those of the cercariae of other species of Paragonimus from Asia and America.