Experimental evaluation of Ulomoides dermestoides (Tenebrionidae) as an intermediate host of Hymenolepis diminuta

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine if Ulomoides dermestoides behaves as an intermediate host of Hymenolepis diminuta, therefore one hundred of them were experimentally infected with tapeworm eggs. As a result, it was found that in 92% of the insects formed cysticercoids which, inoculated in laboratory rats, developed the adult stage. These adults produced eggs with which the infection process was repeated, obtaining the same results. Therefore it can be said that U. dermestoides experimentally acts as an intermediate host.

Keywords

• hymenolepis diminuta
• ulomoides dermestoides
• estudios experimentales