Emergence of cercariae of Echinostoma trivolvis from Helisoma trivolvis under different conditions.

Release of Echinostoma trivolvis cercariae from naturally infected Helisoma trivolvis snails maintained under different laboratory conditions was studied. Infected snails were isolated for 1 hr in Stender dishes containing 5 ml of artificial spring water and the number of cercariae released during this time was recorded. Of the conditions tested, i.e., light versus dark, day versus night, volume of water, snail maintenance temperature prior to isolation, temperature during isolation, food versus no food, aeration of water, disturbance of water, and isolation in snail conditioned water, the only significant factors in the emergence of E. trivolvis cercariae were temperature related. Observations on cercariae released in vitro from isolated rediae maintained in Locke's solutions were in accord with the in vivo results.