Syn.: Pseudorhabditis, Perroncito, 1881; Rhabdonema, Leuckart, 1882, p.p.
The genus is insufficiently defined. The parasitic form possesses a simple mouth opening directly into the long cylindrical œsophagus which occupies the anterior third of the body. The free-living forms possess a small buccal cavity; the œsophagus is short, with a double bulb, in the hinder one there is a Y-shaped chitinous valve; two spicules of equal size.
Strongyloides stercoralis, Bavay, 1877.
Syn.: Anguillula intestinalis et stercoralis, Bavay, 1877; Leptodera intestinalis et stercoralis, Cobb.; Pseudorhabditis stercoralis, Perroncito, 1881; Rhabdonema strongyloides, Leuckart, 1883; Strongyloides intestinalis, Grassi, 1883; Rhabdonema intestinale, Blanchard, 1886.
In 1876, a number of French soldiers returned to Toulon from Cochin China suffering from severe diarrhœa. Dr. Normand, under whose treatment they were, discovered a large number of Nematodes in the evacuated fæces, and Bavay described them as Anguillula stercoralis. Soon after Normand, at the post-mortem of five patients who had died of Cochin China diarrhœa, found numerous other Nematodes in the intestine, from the stomach to the rectum, in the bile-ducts and in the pancreas, and these he handed over to Bavay. The latter diagnosed another species, and described them as A. intestinalis. Both forms were then regarded as the cause of Cochin China diarrhœa until, in 1882, Leuckart was able to demonstrate that the two forms are only two succeeding generations of the same species, of which the one (A. intestinalis) lives parasitically in the intestine, whereas its young (A. stercoralis) attain the open, where they come to maturity and propagate. The young of these again live parasitically. There thus exists the same heterogony as was discovered by Leuckart in Angiostomum nigrovenosum of frogs, which heterogony, indeed, according to v. Linstow, appertains to the entire family of the Angiostomidæ.
Fig. 271.—Strongyloides stercoralis, male: free-living generation. × 170. (After Looss.)
(1) The parasitic generation (strongyloid or filariform ♀) is quite colourless and cannot be seen in situ even with a lens. To detect them it is necessary to scrape the mucosa of the jejunum and examine the scrapings microscopically. It measures 2·2 mm. in length, and 34 µ to 70 µ in breadth; the cuticle is finely transversely striated; the mouth is surrounded by four lips; the œsophagus is almost cylindrical and a third the length of the entire body. The anus opens shortly in front of the pointed posterior extremity; the vulva is situated at junction of middle and posterior thirds of the body; the uterus has no special ovejector; the eggs measure 50 µ to 58 µ in length, and 30 µ to 34 µ in breadth, and lie in a chain one behind the other (fig. 270). As in the case of Angiostomum nigrovenosum, Leuckart considers this stage to be hermaphroditic, the testes degenerating after having functioned; other authors (Rovelli) regard it as a female reproducing by parthenogenesis.