Morphology
Eggs of N. salmincola are light brown, ovoid, and operculate at one end, with a small blunt projection at the other end. They measure 0.087 mm to 0.097 mm by 0.038 mm to 0.055 mm. There are normally 5 to 16 eggs in the uterus, and their heaviness allows them to sink rapidly in water.
N. salmincola is a digenic trematode, which means that it is an unsegmented worm that is flattened dorsoventrally. Adult worms alternate shape from “a sphere to a long blunt rod.” The worms are 0.8 to 1.1mm long and 0.3 to 0.5 mm wide and are hermaphroditic, having both male and female reproductive organs in the same organism. The two large oval testes are 0.2 to 0.3 mm long and the round ovary is 0.07 to 0.11 mm in diameter. N. salmincola has a prominent cirrus pouch, or hollow organ surrounding the male copulatory organ, but no seminal vesicle. True to its character as a trematode, it has an oral sucker 0.15 to 0.18 mm in diameter, and a ventral sucker 0.12 to 0.13 mm in diameter. The oral and ventral suckers are used to grasp and crawl actively about the intestinal tissue of its host, though the worm leaves no extensive mechanical damage.
Read more about this topic: Nanophyetus Salmincola
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