Schistosoma mansoni: cercarial responses to irradiance changes.

Cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni alternate between active swimming and passive drifting. They began swimming in response to either an increase or decrease in irradiance experienced during the passive phase. The number of cercariae reacting to a shadow was proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus. The shadow response may be mediated by the cercaria's ciliary receptors. About half as many cercariae reacted to an irradiance increase as to an equivalent decrease. This report is the first quantitative study of photosensory stimulus-response relationships in schistosome cercariae.