Community and infracommunities of metazoan parasites in Hemiodus unimaculatus (Hemiodontidae) from Jari River basin, a tributary of Amazon River (Brazil)

Abstract

Parasites are an important part of biodiversity, and knowledge of species and their relationship with their hosts helps in monitoring an ecosystem over time. The aim of this study was to investigate the fauna of metazoan parasites in Hemiodus unimaculatus from the Jari River, in the eastern Amazon region, northern Brazil. Of the fish examined, 96.7% were parasitized by one or more species, and a total of 336 parasites such as Dactylogyridae gen. sp.1, Dactylogyridae gen. sp.2, Dactylogyridae gen. sp.3, Dactylogyridae gen. sp.4, Gyrodactilydae gen. sp., Urocleidoides sp.1, Urocleidoides sp.2, Urocleidoides sp.3, metacercariae of Digenea gen. sp., Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) inopinatus, Contracaecum sp., Neoechinorhynchus sp. and Acarina gen. sp. The parasite community showed low Brillouin diversity (0.58 ± 0.29), low evenness (0.44 ± 0.21) and low species richness (7.40 ± 3.83). There was a predominance of ectoparasites, mainly monogeneans and digeneans. The parasites showed an aggregate dispersion, except for P. (S.) inopinatus, which had a random dispersion. The size of the hosts had no effect on diversity, species richness and abundance of parasites, but other factors structured the parasite community. This is the first study on the parasite community and infracommunities in H. unimaculatus.

A new species of Urocleidoides Mizelle & Price 1964 (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) parasite of Hemiodus orthonops Eigenmann & Kennedy, 1903 (Hemiodontidae) from the upper Paraná River floodplain

“…2020). Almeida et al (2021) confirmed the first record of Urocleidoides for the gills of Hemiodus unimaculatus (Bloch 1794) in the Jari River, a tributary of the Amazon River; however, there has been no description of a species of Urocleidoides for this family of fish.…”

“…Fifty-two species of Urocleidoides are considered valid to date and occur especially in Neotropical Characiform fishes (Ferreira et al 2018;Oliveira et al 2020;Zago et al 2020;De Oliveira et al 2021;Santos Neto and Domingues 2023), especially in hosts from the Anostomidae and Erythrinidae (Zago et al 2020). Almeida et al (2021) confirmed the first record of Urocleidoides for the gills of Hemiodus unimaculatus (Bloch 1794) in the Jari River, a tributary of the Amazon River; however, there has been no description of a species of Urocleidoides for this family of fish.…”