Levinseniella deblocki is a parasitic fluke that occurs in salt marshes along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Its life cycle includes a metacercarial stage in the gonads of fiddler crabs (Uca) and one intermediate host is a gastropod from the genus Heleobops (family Hydrobiidae). Adults are found in the digestive tracts of marsh rice rats (Oryzomys palustris), raccoons (Procyon lotor), and clapper rails (Rallus crepitans). Within the subgenus Austromicrophallus, L. deblocki is most similar to the European L. polydactyla and the Californian L. ophidea, but differs in size, ecology, and morphology.[1]
Levinseniella deblocki is a parasitic fluke that occurs in salt marshes along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Its life cycle includes a metacercarial stage in the gonads of fiddler crabs (Uca) and one intermediate host is a gastropod from the genus Heleobops (family Hydrobiidae). Adults are found in the digestive tracts of marsh rice rats (Oryzomys palustris), raccoons (Procyon lotor), and clapper rails (Rallus crepitans). Within the subgenus Austromicrophallus, L. deblocki is most similar to the European L. polydactyla and the Californian L. ophidea, but differs in size, ecology, and morphology.
