ULTRASTRUCURAL STUDY OF BEE LOUSE VARROA DESTRUCTOR ANDERSON & TRUEMAN 2000 (ACARI: VARROIDAE) WITH RESISTANCE MODELS FROM APIS MELLIFERA L.

The ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor is the most dangerous pest of honeybee Egyptian race Apis mellifera L., as it causes many losses in apiculture worldwide. Adult female mites are flattened with a dome-shaped dorsal shield. The present SEM study revealed that the flat ventral surface is composed of series of plates. There are 5 rows of small, chemoreceptor papillae posterior to the genito-ventro anal shield, and a unique respiratory structure (peritreme) is located laterally above Coxa III. Peritreme is a chitinized elongated area surrounding stigma opening, provided by a lid that looks like a rose with a curly thick inner membrane which has numerous teeth-like projections. Mite' legs appeared to be modified for parasitism and each is tipped by one distal empodium. The pretarsus of the first pair of legs becomes a concave sucker and the pretarsus of the 3 pairs of the posterior legs consists of membranous amblacral pad (the caruncle). The mouthparts appeared well modified for its diet on bee hernolymph with its' powerful pedipalp for host attachment. High magnification revealed different types of setae distributed on the body, the mechano-receptor pedipalp short. and long anal setae and dorsal shield sensory simple setae.

Surface topography of two trematodes parasites infecting grey heron Ardea cinerea Jouyi (Aves, Ciconiiformes) in Qena, Egypt.

Apharyngostrigea ardeolina and Echinoparyphium recurvatum are two important digenean parasites that were recovered from small intestine of grey heron with an infection rate (16.2%) and (8.8%) respectively. The surface topography of two species was redescribed by both light and scanning electron microscopy. Using SEM studies showed that the body surface of two trematodes were covered by contact receptors, several types of sensory tegumental papillae which may have useful function in orientation and feeding through increasing the surface area of absorption, could also play a role in sensation or in selection of the materials for ingestion by the fluke. The head collar of E. recurvatum is reniform in shape, bearing uninterrupted double row of 41 collar finger-like spines, a total including 4 end group ones on both ventral corners., tegumental spines were tongue-shaped without a terminal tip.

Redescription of Physaloptera praeputialis von Linstow, 1889 (Nematoda: Spirurida) infecting stray cats (Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758) in Qena, Egypt and overview of the genus taxonomy.

Members of the family Physalopteridae are small or large worms parasitic in various regions of the alimentary tract of amphibians (3 species), reptiles (45 species), birds (24 species), mammals (more than 90 species) and humans (more than 82 reported cases). This study estimated the prevalence of Physalopteridae in stray cats in Qena and identify the encountered species and to overview the taxonomic features of different species of the family from which more than 200 species were recovered besides the unnamed species. The gastrointestinal tracts of 39 necropsied stray cats were examined for Physaloptera spp. The encountered species was mounted and prepared to be studied by ordinary and scanning electron microscopy. Ph. praeputialis adults and larvae were recovered from the pyloric region of the stomach of 28 (71.2%) of 39 necropsied stray cats (Felis catus). Species was redescribed by light and scanning electron microscopy, compared with the other related species of the same genus and larval stages are described for the first time. SEM examination of the parasite revealed that oral aperture is surrounded by 2 massive rounded lateral pseudolabia; pseudolabium roughly rectangular in apical view bearing 2 large sub- median (dorsolateral and ventrolateral) cephalic papillae.