The blood cells of the trematode diplodiscus temperatus

The vascular channels and sinuses of this trematode contain three varieties of cells: eosinophilic granulocytes, primitive hemocytoblasts (‘amebocytes’), and modified hemocytoblasts. The latter suggest a specialized blood corpuscle, but represent apparently only a stage in the dissolution of intravascular hemocytoblasts. These ‘corpuscles’ have the form of flattened lenticular discs, approximately 12 μ in diameter. The eosinophils differentiate extravascularly from hemocytoblasts. The hemocytoblasts are in part free parenchymal cells, in part they arise from a bilaterally paired ‘lymphogenous organ’ or ‘blood island’ associated with the lateral vascular channels at the level where the ceca diverge from the esophagus.