Equal partnership: two trematode species,
not one, manipulate the burrowing
behaviour of the New Zealand cockle,
Austrovenus stutchburyi
C. Babirat, K.N. Mouritsen and R. Poulin*
Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56,
Dunedin, New Zealand
Abstract
Metacercariae of the trematode Curtuteria australis (Echinostomatidae)
accumulate in the foot of the New Zealand cockle Austrovenus stutchburyi,
severely impairing the cockle’s ability to burrow under the sediments. This
results in increased predation by birds on cockles, and thus enhanced
transmission rates of the parasite to its bird definitive hosts. This host
manipulation by the trematode is costly: fish regularly crop the tip of the foot of
cockles stranded on the sediment surface, killing any metacercariae they ingest.
A second, previously undetected trematode species (characterized by 23 collar
spines) co-existing with C. australis, has been found in the foot of cockles in
the Otago Harbour, South Island, New Zealand. The relative abundance of the
two species varies among localities, with the identity of the numerically
dominant species also changing from one locality to the next. Both C. australis
and the new species have a strong preference for encysting in the tip of the
cockle’s foot, where their impact on the burrowing ability of the host is greatest,
and where they both face the risk of cropping by fish. Results indicate that these
two species are ecological equivalents, and their combined numbers determine
how the cockle population is affected.
Introduction
The parasitology literature of the past 30 years contains
numerous examples of intermediate hosts displaying
altered behaviour following infection by larval helminth
parasites, with the modified behaviour often facilitating
the transmission of the parasites to their next host (see
reviews in Combes, 1991, 2001; Poulin, 1995, 1998; Moore,
2002). Helminth species known to be capable of
manipulating the behaviour of their intermediate hosts
regularly coexist with other helminth species, forming
packets of infective worms acquired simultaneously by
any predator ingesting the intermediate host (Bush et al.,
1993). These situations raise interesting questions. For
instance, if two helminth species share two consecutive
hosts in their life cycle and are transmitted from one to the
other by predation, have they both evolved the ability of
manipulating the behaviour of the first host? Or is one
doing all the work, with the other being a hitch-hiker,
getting all the benefits at no cost? To date, these questions
have only been addressed in a few host–parasite systems
(see Thomas et al., 1997, 1998; Lafferty et al., 2000;
Mouritsen, 2001), despite how important they are for our
understanding of the evolution of parasite transmission
strategies.
The trematode Curtuteria australis (Echinostomatidae:
Himasthlinae) is a common parasite of the New Zealand
cockle, Austrovenus stutchburyi (Allison, 1979). Its ability
to modify the behaviour of the cockle is well documen-
ted: metacercariae of C. australis accumulate in the foot of
cockles, where they impair the normal burrowing
abilities of cockles (Thomas & Poulin, 1998; Mouritsen,
2002). Heavily infected cockles are left stranded on the
sediment surface, where they face increased predation by
*Author for correspondence
Fax: þ 64 3 479-7584
E-mail: robert.poulin@stonebow.otago.ac.nz
Journal of Helminthology (2004) 78, 195–199 DOI: 10.1079/JOH2003231
oystercatchers, the parasite’s definitive host (Thomas &
Poulin, 1998). This manipulation is thus advantageous for
the parasite, but it also comes with a cost: fish regularly
crop the foot of cockles lying on the sediment surface and
trying to burrow, resulting in the death of any
metacercariae they ingest (Mouritsen & Poulin, 2003a,b).
The tip of the foot is especially vulnerable to cropping; it
is also where metacercariae are expected to encyst if they
are to interfere effectively with the cockle’s ability to
burrow (Mouritsen, 2002; Mouritsen & Poulin, 2003a).
Thus the manipulation of the cockle’s burrowing
behaviour is a two-edged sword: on the one hand it
increases the probability of transmission to birds, while
on the other it increases the probability that metacercar-
iae will end up in fish, where they cannot develop.
This costly manipulation has so far been attributed to
C. australis, the only echinostome described from the
cockle A. stutchburyi. However, two recent observations
suggest that there may be a second, hitherto unknown,
echinostome species sharing cockles with C. australis. First,
the distribution of the diameters of metacercarial cysts
in cockles often appears to be bimodal (Mouritsen,
unpublished data). This is not what we would expect
if there were only one species infecting cockles. Second,
echinostome infections are commonly found in the
mud snail Zeacumantus subcarinatus (Batillariidae)
(B.L. Fredensborg, personal communication), whereas
the first intermediate host of C. australis, in which cercariae
are produced prior to infecting cockles, is the whelk
Cominella glandiformis (Buccinidae) (Allison, 1979). The
two snail species are sympatric throughout our study area,
and the cercariae they release have been found encysted
only in cockles. Given the high specificity of trematodes
for their first intermediate host (Adema & Loker, 1997),
cercariae issued from the two different snails are unlikely
to be conspecifics. The possibility that two related
echinostome species share the same second intermediate
host (cockles) and most likely the same avian definitive
hosts suggests some interesting scenarios. Are the two
species equally contributing to the manipulation of the
cockle host, and thus facing the same risk of ending up in a
foot-cropping fish? Or is one of them encysting away from
the tip of the foot, hitch-hiking a safe ride toward bird
hosts at the expense of the other species?
The objectives of this study were: (i) to determine
whether there are indeed two distinct echinostome
species infecting cockles and, if so, how to distinguish
between them; and (ii) to quantify the respective
distributions of the two species within the tissues of the
cockles, to see whether they are equally likely to be
encysted in the tip of the cockle’s foot.
Materials and methods
Large numbers of whelks, Cominella glandiformis, and
mud snails, Zeacumantus subcarinatus, were collected at
low tide in January 2003 from mudflats in the Otago
Harbour, South Island, New Zealand. They were returned
to the laboratory and kept individually for several days in
small plastic containers filled with seawater, under
constant illumination and at room temperature. The
containers were checked daily for live echinostome
cercariae used for morphological measurements. Live,
mature cercariae were placed in a droplet of seawater on a
microscope slide and, under coverslip pressure, were
measured individually using a compound microscope.
For each cercaria, the number of collar spines, body
length, head width, body width, tail length (all at 40 £
magnification), oral sucker diameter and ventral sucker
diameter (the latter two at 100 £ magnification) were
recorded. Data were obtained for 50 cercariae shed by
whelks (10 cercariae from each of 5 infected whelks), and
51 cercariae shed by mud snails (6–10 from each of 6
infected snails).
Cockles (Austrovenus stutchburyi) were also obtained
from mudflats in the Otago Harbour. Thirty randomly-
chosen metacercarial cysts were carefully dissected from
the foot of 8 cockles (for a total of 240 metacercariae), and
their diameter was measured under the microscope (30 £
magnification). Cysts were then placed under conditions
simulating those inside a bird digestive tract, i.e. in Petri
dishes in an excystation solution consisting of 5 ml of
bicarbonate saline (0.8% weight/volume sodium chloride
and 1.5% w/v sodium bicarbonate) containing 0.8% w/v
sodium taurocholate and 0.3% w/v trypsin, and 5 ml
0.02
M hydrochloric acid containing 0.8% w/v L-cysteine
(Irwin et al., 1984; Irwin, 1997). Metacercariae were left in
the solution for 1 h at 408C and then examined under the
microscope. Their collar spines were counted, and the
range of cyst diameters corresponding to different
numbers of collar spines was determined.
Further cockles were collected for the purpose of
comparing the distribution of the two species of
metacercariae in the foot of cockles. Cockles were taken
from three sites within the Otago Harbour that differed
with respect to intensities of infection: Otakou (fewer than
50 metacercariae per cockle on average), Lower Porto-
bello (around 200 metacercariae per cockle), and Har-
wood (around 400 metacercariae per cockle). Three
cockles were dissected from each site. The foot of each
cockle was cut into three sections: the tip, middle and
hind parts of the foot. The relative surface areas of each
section, determined by projecting the outline of the foot
on graph paper, were 27.3%, 30.6% and 42.1% of the total
foot area, respectively. Based on mass (after weighing foot
sections separately to the nearest 0.0001g), the relative
sizes of the tip, middle and hind sections were 26.2%,
37.9% and 35.9% of the total foot mass, respectively. The
number of metacercariae of each species in each foot
section was counted; the two species were distinguished
based on the diameter of their metacercarial cysts and on
collar spine counts following excystation. To obtain
accurate counts, all foot sections were digested separately
in a pepsin solution (6 g pepsin and 7 ml HCl in 1000 ml
water) at 408C for 4 h. This procedure allows the recovery
and count of all metacercariae under the microscope,
including those not visible because they are deeply
embedded in the foot tissue (Lepitzki et al., 1994).
In addition, the remaining soft tissues were scraped off
the cockle shells, placed in a container with digestive
fluid, and any metacercariae recovered were identified
and counted. The relative frequencies of metacercariae
of the two species in different cockle body parts (tip of
the foot, middle of the foot, hind part of the foot, or rest
of the body) were compared using a contingency table
analysis (Chi-squared test).
196
C. Babirat et al.
Results
Cercariae shed by the whelk Cominella glandiformis all
had 31 collar spines and, despite being slightly larger in
all body dimensions than the ones described by Allison
(1979), they corresponded to Curtuteria australis (table 1).
In contrast, all cercariae which emerged from the mud
snail Zeacumantus subcarinatus displayed 23 collar spines
and were generally smaller than C. australis (table 1).
These 23-spine cercariae represent an undescribed
species.
Metacercariae with 23 collar spines that were obtained
by excystation had cyst diameters ranging between 200
and 250
m
m (mean 235
m
m). Metacercariae with 31 collar
spines, i.e. those of C. australis, had cysts ranging between
267 and 333
m
m in diameter (mean 285
m
m). There may
have been some overlap between these ranges had more
metacercariae been examined, but it would appear to be
negligible. For the counts described below, we thus
considered metacercarial cysts with a diameter of 250
m
m
or less to be the 23-spine species, and those with a
diameter of 267
m
m or more to be C. australis.
At the Otakou site, overall intensities of infection were
low, and neither species showed a marked numerical
dominance over the other. Metacercariae of both species
showed a preference for the tip of the foot, and no
metacercariae were found outside of the foot (fig. 1).
There was no difference between the distributions of the
two species among cockle tissues (
x
2
¼ 1.663, df ¼ 2,
P ¼ 0.4354). If we consider only the tip of the foot versus
all other sites of encystment pooled together, there is also
no difference between the distributions of the two species
(
x
2
¼ 0.171, df ¼ 1, P ¼ 0.679).
At the Lower Portobello site, intensities of infection
were higher and the 23-spine species was twice as
abundant as C. australis. The two species differed in their
distribution among cockle tissues at this site
(
x
2
¼ 109.608, df ¼ 3, P ¼ 0.0001). Both species were
more frequent in the tip of the foot than elsewhere;
however, whereas most remaining metacercariae of the
23-spine species were found in the middle of the foot, a
large proportion of remaining C. australis metacercariae
occurred outside the foot, in other cockle tissues (fig. 1).
A closer look revealed that some of these C. australis
metacercariae were lodged in the siphon and some in the
mantle edge, but that the majority were found in the other
tissues. If we consider only the tip of the foot versus all
other sites of encystment pooled together, the difference
between the distribution of the two species becomes less
pronounced (
x
2
¼ 5.427, df ¼ 1, P ¼ 0.0198).
Intensities of infection were highest at the Harwood
site, and C. australis was approximately 10 times as
numerous as the 23-spine species at this site. Again, the
distribution of the two species among cockle tissues
proved to be different (
x
2
¼ 52.101, df ¼ 3, P ¼ 0.0001).
The pattern was very similar to that at Lower Portobello:
the 23-spine species was found mainly in the tip of the
foot, followed by the middle section of the foot, whereas
for C. australis the largest proportion of metacercariae,
after the tip of the foot, was found outside the foot, i.e. in
the rest of the cockle’s body (fig. 1). However, if we
consider only the tip of the foot versus all other sites of
encystment pooled together, the difference between the
distribution of the two species disappears (
x
2
¼ 0.983,
df ¼ 1, P ¼ 0.3775).
The preference of both trematode species for the tip of
the foot becomes slightly more pronounced if we correct
the frequencies of metacercariae found in each of the three
foot sections for their relative sizes. For instance, pooling
all three collection sites, 870 C. australis metacercariae
were found in the foot of cockles, 78.05% of which were in
the tip of the foot; if we weigh this value for the
proportion of total foot mass accounted for by the tip of
the foot, it becomes 83.5%. Similarly, of 553 metacercariae
of the 23-spine species found in the foot of cockles, 55.5%
were in the tip of the foot without correction for the
relative mass of the tip, and 64.1% after correction.
Discussion
Bivalves commonly serve as second intermediate hosts
for more than one trematode species. For instance, the
European cockle, Cerastoderma edule, harbours metacer-
cariae of many trematodes, including several species of
the echinostome genus Himasthla (Lauckner, 1983). In
such situations, different parasite species may have
different impacts on the host, and may play different
ecological roles. The results of the present study clearly
show that metacercariae found in the foot of the New
Zealand cockle, Austrovenus stutchburyi, do not represent
a single species of echinostome as previously believed,
but instead consist of a mixture of two species. Both the
23-spine species from the mud snail Zeacumantus
subcarinatus, and Curtuteria australis from the whelk
Cominella glandiformis, use cockles as their second
intermediate host where they encyst in the foot. The
present data show that both species are located
Table 1. Morphological comparison (mean, range in parentheses) of cercariae of the unnamed 23-spine echinostome
shed by the mud snail Zeacumantus subcarinatus and of Curtuteria australis shed by the whelk Cominella glandiformis.
Variable
23-spine species
(present study)
Curtuteria australis
(present study)
Curtuteria australis
(from Allison, 1979)
Number of collar spines 23 31 31
Body length (
m
m) 675 (380–975) 1150 (709–1443) 690 (520–1130)
Head width (
m
m) 184 (127–228) 251 (203–304) Unavailable
Body width (
m
m) 278 (203–365) 413 (304–506) 260 (150–340)
Tail length (
m
m) 396 (203–684) 609 (405–962) 490 (unavailable)
Oral sucker diameter (
m
m) 64 (51–81) 86 (81–91) 50 (unavailable)
Ventral sucker diameter (
m
m) 115 (81–142) 170 (142–213) 150 (unavailable)
Echinostomes in Austrovenus stutchburyi 197
predominantly in the tip of the cockle’s foot, occurring
there in similar proportions compared to other parts of
the cockle. This suggests that both species contribute
about equally to the manipulation of the host, and that, on
average, they both face identical risks of being ingested by
a fish via foot-cropping. This means that the two species
are ecologically equivalent in this system, and that for all
practical purposes, using the total number of metacercar-
iae per cockle, regardless of what species they belong to,
can still serve as a measure of the impact of the
trematodes on cockle predation by birds or other
consequences of infection.
We compared the relative distribution of the two
echinostome species among different locations in the foot
and in the rest of the cockle. Looking instead at the
numbers of metacercariae per gram of tissue would have
yielded similar results. It is interesting to note, however,
that because of the way in which the foot of cockles was
sectioned, the tip section was smaller (both in terms of
projected surface area and with respect to mass) than
either the middle or hind sections. This means that the
disproportionately high counts of metacercariae of both
species in the tip of the foot reflects a strong preference by
both parasites for this part of the host’s body, as seen
following a correction for the relative mass of different
foot sections. The frequency of encystment in tissues
other than the tip of the foot tends to increase with
increasing total parasite load. Approximately 70% of
metacercariae are found in the tip of the foot at Otakou,
where intensities of infection are low, whereas only about
50% are found in the tip at Harwood, where intensities are
much higher (fig. 1). One possibility is that both
echinostome species have evolved a strong preference
for the tip of the foot, only settling elsewhere as a
consequence of crowded conditions. However, there is no
evidence of density-dependent constraints in this system,
and, even in highly-infected cockles, much of the volume
of the tip of the foot remains available for further
metacercariae. A second explanation may be that the
parasites settle away from the tip of the foot when the
latter is missing. Foot-cropping fish remove the tip of the
foot in many cockles, especially in the most heavily-
infected ones (Mouritsen & Poulin, 2003a,b), and
metacercariae arriving in these cockles before the tip is
regenerated would have to establish elsewhere.
The small apparent difference in the distribution of
metacercariae of the two echinostome species among
cockle tissues, observed at the two sites with highest
intensities of infection, may in fact be less pronounced
than the present results suggest. There may be a third
echinostome species encysting mainly outside of the foot.
Metacercariae recovered from tissues outside of the foot
were often at the upper end of the range of diameters
associated with C. australis cysts. In one of them, 36 collar
spines were counted, and not the 31 expected from
C. australis. It may thus be that some of the metacercariae
found outside of the foot, and here classified as belonging
to C. australis, are in fact members of a third species. If this
is indeed the case, the true distributions of C. australis and
of the 23-spine species among foot sections and the rest of
the cockle’s body may be rather similar.
Our measurements of cercarial dimensions for
C. australis differ somewhat from those reported by
Allison (1979). Considerable variation was observed
among cercariae of both C. australis and the 23-spine
species according to which snail they came from, with
some snails consistently producing larger cercariae than
others. We believe this explains the differences between
our measurements and those of Allison (1979).
The newly-discovered 23-spine species is likely to be
subjected to other processes previously thought to apply
only to C. australis. For instance, predation by anemones
has been identified as a significant source of mortality for
cercariae leaving their snail host in search of cockles
(Mouritsen & Poulin, 2003c). The anemone Anthopleura
Fig. 1. Percentage (mean ^ SE) of metacercariae of two
echinostome species, Curtuteria australis (open bars) and the
new 23-spine species (black bars), found in four body regions of
cockles, at three sites (a, Otakou; b, Lower Portobello; c,
Harwood) in the Otago Harbour, New Zealand. The data are
from three cockles per site; total numbers of metacercariae of
both species are given in the figure.
198 C. Babirat et al.
aureoradiata is often found attached to the shell of cockles,
reaching high abundances in some places; its presence
results in lower numbers of cercariae successfully
infecting cockles. Also, whelks, C. glandiformis, are active
predators of cockles (Ansell, 2001). Metacercariae
ingested by whelks as the latter feed on cockles can
survive up to three days inside whelks before passing out
in the faeces (Mcfarland et al., 2003). Although whelks
may serve as paratenic (transport) hosts because shore-
birds occasionally feed on them, the short residence time
of metacercariae inside whelks means that this acts
instead as a source of considerable losses for the
trematodes. The present study suggests that losses caused
by anemones or whelks are incurred equally by both
C. australis and the 23-spine species. In all respects, the
two echinostome species appear to play identical roles in
the New Zealand soft-sediment ecosystem.
Acknowledgements
C. Babirat was funded by a University of Otago
Summer Bursary during this study. This work was
supported by a grant from the Marsden Fund (New
Zealand) to R. Poulin, and by a grant from the Danish
Natural Science Research Council to K.N. Mouritsen.
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q CAB International, 2004
Echinostomes in Austrovenus stutchburyi
199
