Ergasilid copepods (Poecilostomatoida) from the gills of primitive Mugilidae (grey mullets)

Abstract

All representatives of the subfamily Agonostominae of grey mullets in the collections of The Natural History Museum in London were examined for parasitic copepods. Agonostomus monticola, Joturus pichardi, Aldrichetta forsteri and Cestraeus goldiei were all infected by copepods. Three new species of Acusicola and two new species of Ergasilus were found: E. parabahiensis n. sp. on A. monticola from Guyana and E. acusicestraeus n. sp. on C. goldiei from Papua New Guinea. Acusicola spinuloderma n. sp. was found on A. monticola and J. pichardi collected from different localities in Central America, A. mazatlanesis n. sp. on the same host from west Mexico (Mazatlan) and A. joturicola n. sp. on J. pichardi from Panama. Descriptions of the five new species and a redescription of E. australiensis Roubal, from Aldrichetta forsteri, are presented. The host-parasite relationships and geographical distributions of hosts and their parasitic copepods are analysed.

Crustacean fish parasites from Segara Anakan Lagoon, Java, Indonesia

“…Even though this fish species has a wide distribution and has been well studied for copepod parasites (e.g., Paperna and Overstreet 1981;El-Rashidy and Boxshall 1999), several copepods from the present study represent new host records. According to El-Rashidy and Boxshall (1999), at least nine different ergasilid genera have been recorded from mugilid fish, and M. cephalus alone harbors six different genera (Dermoergasilus, Ergasilus, Mugilicola, Nipergasilus, Paraergasilus, and Thersitina). Three species of ergasilid copepods were recorded from Segara Anakan; two of them belonging to Ergasilus and one species probably represents an undescribed genus.…”

Parasites of juvenile golden grey mullet Liza aurata Risso, 1810 in Sarıkum Lagoon Lake at Sinop, Turkey

“…Ergasilus lizae Kroyer, 1863 is among the common ectoparasites on the gills of mugilid fishes (El-Rashidy andBoxhall 1999, Conroy andConroy 1986), and has a known wide geographical distrubition that includes the North American Atlantic coast, Uruguay, Israel, Black Sea, Australia, and South American Pasific coast (Knoff et al 1994). Ergasilus lizae has so far been reported in Mugil cephalus (Oldewage andVan As 1988, Kabata 1992), M. platanus (Knoff et al 1994), M. liza, M. curema andM.…”

A new genus and species of mesoparasitic ergasilid (Copepoda: Cyclopoida) from brackish water pufferfishes collected in northern Australian waters

“…Post-mated adult females from 22 of these 25 genera parasitise fishes, whilst those of the monotypic Teredophilus Rancurel, 1954 infect solely brackish water bivalve molluscs, and those in the monotypic Vaigamus Thatcher & Robertson, 1984 and Pseudovaigamus Amado, Ho & Rocha, 1995 have been collected thus far from the plankton (Harding, 1964;Thatcher & Robertson, 1984). Of these 22 fish-inhabiting genera, 19 are ectoparasitic, using their modified prehensile antennae to attach to the gills, fins and nasal cavities of their hosts (El-Rashidy & Boxshall, 1999). The remaining three fish-parasitic genera (i.e.…”