Family SCHIZOCHOERIDAE Poche, 1922
Introduction
The Schizochoeridae are characterised by the vagina not crossing the male duct and the third limb of the uterus not convoluted (Gibson 1994). Gibson (1994) considered the families Austramphilinidae Johnston, 1931 and Gigantolinidae Dubinina, 1982 as synonyms of Schizochoeridae.
Two species are known in the family in Australia. Gigantolina magna (Southwell 1915) has recently been found in the body cavities of marine teleosts on the Barrier Reef (Cribb & Pichelin 1992), and the large orange coloured amphilinidean, Austramphilina elongata, is a common parasite of the body cavity of freshwater tortoises in eastern Australia (Rohde & Georgi 1983). A. elongata is one of the few amphilinideans whose life cycle has been elucidated. While it is not known how eggs leave the body of the tortoise, they hatch in water to release a live lycophore larva which penetrates the body cavity of a juvenile yabbie. When the yabbie is ingested by a tortoise, the larval cestode migrates to the body cavity of the definitive host (Rohde & Georgi 1983).
General References
Cribb, T.H. & Pichelin, S. 1992. First record of Gigantolina magna (Platyhelminthes: Cestoda: Amphilinidae) from an Australian host. Queensland Naturalist 31: 87-89
Gibson, D.I. 1994. Order Amphilinidea. pp. 3-10 in Khalil, L.F., Jones, A. & Bray, R.A. (eds). Keys to the Cestode Parasites of Vertebrates. Wallingford, UK : Commonwealth Agriculture Bureaux International 751 pp.
Rohde, K. & Georgi, M. 1983. Structure and development of Austramphilina elongata Johnston. 1931 (Cestodaria, Amphilinidea). International Journal for Parasitology 13: 273-287