A technique involving protein separation was used as an alternative to a morphological approach in the differentiation of the tapeworms Hymenolepis diminuta, H. citelli, and H. microstoma. Isoelectric focusing of soluble proteins was performed on Polyacrylamide gels using extracts from whole, adult worms. Each species of Hymenolepis was found to have a unique protein banding pattern, although some bands appeared to be common to two or all three species. Very little difference was found in the protein banding patterns of worms of a given species, whether they were from a single host individual or two different host individuals of the same species. There was also little difference between gels in the banding patterns of a given species. This technique of soluble protein isoelectric focusing is simple and reproducible, has very good resolution, and seems well suited to taxonomic studies involving tapeworms.
