Hæmoglobin in Blood-sucking Parasites

Abstract

THE hæmoglobins of different animals are not identical; the differences between them could be used as specific characters within a genus. In Daphnia, for example, the axes of the α-bands of oxyhæmoglobin, measured with the Hartridge reversion spectroscope, are at 5761, 5764 and 5766 A. in D. obtusa Kurz, D. pulex (De Geer) and D. magna Straus respectively, while for the larvæ of two species of the chironomid genus Anatopynia, the wavelengths are 5769 for A. varia (Fabr.) and 5776 for A. nebulosa (Mg.). Moreover, hæmoglobins are not only specific: they also may be individual¹. It is to be expected then that the hæmoglobins of a host and of its bloodsucking parasite will not be identical; yet this seems never to have been established. The only invertebrate parasites which suck the blood of vertebrate animals and have hæmoglobin in their own blood are certain leeches and copepods, and it has been supposed by some that the hæmoglobin of a parasitic copepod originates from that of its host, a fish, by passing through the gut wall of the parasite and accumulating in the blood of the latter².