Host death: A necessary condition for the transmission of Aphalloides coelomicola Dollfus, Chabaud, and Golvan, 1957 (Digenea, Cryptogonimidae)?

Eggs of the trematode Aphalloides coelomicola were observed free in the abd ominal cavity of Pomatoschistus microps from March 1993 to October 1995 (Pi sces, Gobiidae) in the Vaccares lagoon (delta du Rhone. France). The eggs w ere contained in a fine membrane of parasitic origin as no immunological re action of the fish was noted. The alternatively high prevalence of adults a nd low prevalence of free eggs, and vice verse, suggest that P. microps is both the second intermediate and final hosts of the trematode Aphalloides c oelomicola and that the mechanism of transfer to the first intermediate hos t is through death of the definitive host.