Gc. Kearn et al., The opercular bond in the egg-shell of the monogenean Entobdella soleae, aplatyhelminth skin parasite of the common sole (Solea solea), PARASITOL, 118, 1999, pp. 433-438
The monogenean (platyhelminth) skin parasite Entobdella soleae from the com
mon sole (Solea solea) lays tetrahedral eggs. One of the 4 corners of the t
etrahedron is a detachable operculum which is bonded to the rest of the egg
-shell by cement. Most of this cement layer, beginning at the inner surface
of the shell and running through almost to the outer surface (a distance o
f about 2 mu m), is more or less uniform in thickness (30-38 nm), or tapers
slightly. About 345 nm from the outer surface the cement layer narrows abr
uptly to about 10 nm. The cement is exposed on the inner surface of the she
ll, but in most eggs a la?;er of shell about 10 nm thick covers the narrow
outer region of the cement layer. When experimentally perforated eggs were
incubated with trypsin, the wide inner layer of cement was digested, but th
e narrow outer region initially remained intact. These observations are dis
cussed in relation to the following (1) survival of the eggs during embryon
ic development, (2) hatching, (3) the 'hinge' often connecting the operculu
m to the empty egg-shell, (4) the rapid hatching that occurs in some other
monogeneans.