Four new myxozoans (Myxosporea: Bivalvulida) from intertidal fishes along the south coast of Africa

Abstract

Abstract. Current records of marine myxozoans from the coast of Africa are limited to the descriptions of 52 species from mostly Senegal, with a few from Tunisia and southern Africa. Between 1998 and 2000 several intertidal fishes from the southern Cape coast of South Africa were examined for the presence of myxozoan infections. Three new species, Ceratomyxa dehoopi sp. n., C. cottoidii sp. n. and C. honckenii sp. n. were identified from the gall bladders of Clinus superciliosus L., C. cottoides Valenciennes and Amblyrhynchotes honckenii (Bloch), respectively. A fourth new species Henneguya clini sp. n. was also identified from the gills and gill arches of C. superciliosus.Very little is known about the distribution and diversity of marine myxozoans along Africa's coastline. Research on these parasites is restricted to the description of 52 species from the entire extent of the African coastline, the majority of which were described from Senegal. Early records of myxozoan infections in African marine fishes appeared from southern Africa between 1919 . Fantham (1919, 1930 recorded several myxozoan species from the bile of a number of intertidal fishes along the Cape south coast. Gilchrist (1924) described Chloromyxum thyrsites Gilchrist, 1924 from the muscles of Cape Sea fish, or "snoek", which is a species well-known around the world today as the notorious Kudoa thyrsites (Gilchrist, 1924). Subsequent to Gilchrist's (1924) description, Davies and Beyers (1947) recorded the presence of K. thyrsites in some of the South African trawled fishes and during the 1970s Dubina and Isakov (1976), Gaevskaya and Kovaleva (1979) as well as Schulman et al. (1979) described several new myxozoan species from deep sea fish off the coast of southern Africa.After these initial myxozoan publications from southern Africa, approximately 15 years passed before a number of species descriptions started to appear from the North-West coast of Africa (Bahri et al. 1995, Bahri and Marqués 1996, Kpatcha et al. 1996a, b, 1997). Subsequent to these publications Ali (2000) described Ortholinea basma Ali, 2000 from the gall bladder of the agile klipfish Clinus agilis, from the West coast of South Africa. This paper represents the first publication on the occurrence of myxozoans infecting intertidal fishes from the De Hoop Nature Reserve along the south coast of South Africa. Three new species of the genus Ceratomyxa Thélohan, 1892, are described from the gall bladders of Clinus superciliosus L., C. cottoides Valenciennes and Amblyrhynchotes honckenii (Bloch), respectively. A fourth new species from the genus Henneguya Thélohan, 1892 is described from the gills and gill arches of C. superciliosus. MATERIALS AND METHODSA total of 14 Amblyrhynchotes honckenii, 44 Clinus cottoides and 131 C. superciliosus were collected on several fieldtrips to the De Hoop Nature Reserve and Jeffrey's Bay, both of which are situated along the south coast of South Africa. Fishes were collected from intertidal rock pools using small hand nets and hand lines. Captu...

3D Morphology, Ultrastructure and Development of Ceratomyxa puntazzi Stages: First Insights into the Mechanisms of Motility and Budding in the Myxozoa

“…However, attachment of C. puntazzi to the gall bladder epithelium was not observed in the present study, although widely reported in other Ceratomyxa spp. [42]–[44]. The type of cytokinesis observed for the Myxozoa in the present study does not match all characteristics of the existing models type B or C and it is still unclear if it can be ascribed to one of them, however, it is clear that it excludes the formation of a myosin II-dependent contractile ring (Cytokinesis type A).…”

Marine fish parasitology in South Africa: history of discovery and future direction

“…During the period 1918 to 1930 he reported various types of myxosporeans from gall bladders of several South African fishes, mainly intertidal (Fantham 1918a(Fantham , 1918b(Fantham , 1919(Fantham , 1930. None of his descriptions contained sufficient descriptive information and illustrations, making it impossible to distinguish them from other similar species and, according to Reed et al (2007), are considered to be nomina nuda. However, his work was not in vain as it drew the attention of researchers to the possibility of myxozoans inhabiting the gall and urinary bladders of South African intertidal fish and indirectly led to the description of Ortholinea basma Ali, 2000 from the urinary bladder of the agile klipfish, Clinus agilis; subsequently, the descriptions of three more myxozoans followed, namely Ceratomyxa dehoopi Reed, The most infamous of all myxosporeans from South Africa was described in 1924 by the ichthyologist John Dow Fisher Gilchrist from the muscles of the Cape sea fish, or 'snoek', Thyrsites atun.…”

Three novel myxobolid species of genera Henneguya and Myxobolus (Myxosporea: Bivalvulida) from marine fish in Japan

“…Most of the Henneguya spp. have been recorded from the gills, skin, and kidneys of freshwater fish (Eiras 2002 (Kpatcha et al 1997;Eiras 2002;Yokoyama et al 2003Yokoyama et al , 2005Reed et al 2007;Work et al 2008). In addition, H. ogawai sp.…”