Life history and identification of Philophthalmus lucipetus from Israel

A Philophthalmus species whose larval stages have been isolated from Melanopsis praemorsa snails collected in Israel and formerly identified as probably belonging to Philophthalmus palpebrarum has now been reevaluated as belonging to Philophthalmus lucipetus. The present determination is based on a detailed study of all the stages of the parasite's life cycle--eggs, intramolluscan stages, cercariae, and adults. They were compared to the original species P. lucipetus, recently reexamined and redescribed from source material in Vienna, Austria. The identity of the eyefluke from Israel and P. lucipetus was further confirmed by successful cross-infections employing miracidia of the Israeli isolate in European (Bulgarian) Fagotia acicularis acicularis snails on the one hand and miracidia of P. lucipetus from Bulgaria in Israeli Melanopsis praemorsa on the other hand, but none infected Melanoïdes tuberculata snails from Israel.