Two new species of furcocercous cercariae from freshwater gastropods of Western Ghats

Two new furcocercous cercariae, Cercaria sp. I Western Ghats n. sp. and Cercaria sp. II Western Ghats n. sp. were found infecting the freshwater snails Indoplanorbis exustus and Thiara tuberculata respectively of the Wayanad region of the Western Ghats. Cercaria sp. I Western Ghats n. sp., a distome, apharyngeate, non-ocellate and spinose cercaria having three pairs of penetration glands, kidney- shaped small caeca and 20 pairs of flame cells including a pair in the furcae was recovered from I. exustus and Cercaria sp. II Western Ghats n. sp., a non-ocellate, pharyngeate, longifurcate furcocercous cercaria with two pairs of irregularly bordered penetration glands, septate caeca and 21 pairs of flame cells including three pairs in the furcae, from T. tuberculata. Sporocysts of Cercaria sp. I Western Ghats n. sp. were sausage-shaped while that of Cercaria sp. II Western Ghats n. sp. were thread-like and both of them developed in the hepatopancreas of their hosts. This paper describes the two new cercariae with their intramolluscan stages and compares them with related species to establish their systematic positions.