Gill parasites of Cephalopholis argus (Teleostei: Serranidae) from Moorea (French Polynesia): site selection and coexistence

Abstract

Abstract. The distribution and coexistence of gill ectoparasites of 121 specimens of Cephalopholis argus Bloch et Schneider, caught between October 1994 and October 1995, were investigated. Adults of the monogenean Benedenia sp. and copepod Hatschekia sp., the larval caligid copepod Caligus sp. (copepodite and chalimus stages), and praniza larvae of the isopod Gnathia sp. were found. All species were aggregated within the host population. Infracommunities were poor, with only 40.5% of fish infected by two parasite species. Only two individual fish harboured all the parasite species observed at the component community level. Prevalences were less than 50% and mean intensities were low (less than 6 parasites/host). No dominant parasite species were observed in the host population. The spatial distribution of each parasite species was studied on different partitions of the gill arches. Adult parasite stages that are mobile showed much overlap in their distribution, whereas temporarily attached larvae of Caligidae were more site specific. Copepodite and chalimus larvae showed niche restriction that is probably due to gregarious behaviour. Positive associations between caligid larvae reflected intraspecific interaction for site and/or resources. Each of the Caligus sp. larval stages prefers specific sites, as do the adults, which occur exclusively in the buccal cavity of the host. Infracommunities were too poor and too few to induce processes of interspecific competition.Studies on parasites of coral reef fish remain scarce although it has been demonstrated that ectoparasite diversity is high in the tropics (Rohde 1976, 1978a, b, Rohde and Heap 1998. Investigations on coral reef fish parasites of oceanic islands in the southern Pacific are rare and only recently have studies been conducted in

Metazoan parasites on the gills of the skipjack tuna Katsuwonus pelamis (Osteichthyes: Scombridae) from the Alboran Sea (western Mediterranean Sea)

“…These differences in site specificity may be due to different feeding and egg-release strategies, developed during phylogenetic evolution (Lester 1980, Mladineo et al 2010). Caligus bonito also shows site specificity on the gills of the skipjack tuna; according to Lo & Morand (2001), the significant differences in locations between adults and chalimi of C. bonito reflect different ecological requirements.…”

Infestation status of gnathiid isopod juveniles parasitic on Dusky grouper (Epinephelus marginatus) from the northeast Mediterranean Sea

“…Gnathiid isopod larvae have been studied extensively in coral-reef fish (Lo et al 1998;Lo and Morand 2001;Rohde 2005) and a variety of others. González et al (2004) reported that gnathiid infestation in common dentex (Dentex dentex) from the western Mediterranean Sea (Balearic Islands) ranged from 1 to 201 per fish.…”

“…Gnathiid larvae are one of the most common ectoparasites of elasmobranchs and teleosts (Nagel and Grutter 2007;McKiernan et al 2005;González and Moreno 2005;Rohde 2005;Smit et al 2003;Tinsley and Reilly 2002;Lo and Morand 2001;Upton 1984), including the Serranidae (Genc et al 2005). Gnathiids have low host specificity as well as highly dynamic movements onto and off the host fish (Grutter 1994;Chambers and Sikkel 2002).…”

Co-occurrence of Naobranchia lizae (Copepoda) and Metamicrocotyla macracantha (Monogenea), gill parasites of the striped mullet Mugil cephalus.

“…However, although the spatial distribution of copepods has been well documented (e.g., Hanek and Fernando 1978;Benz and Dupre 1987), the coexistence of copepod species has been studied much less (Bashirullah 2000). Further, investigations considering the co-occurrence of monogeneans and copepods are uncommon, and the majority of them have addressed motile copepods (Ramasamy et al 1985;Geets et al 1997;Nie 2000;Lo and Morand 2001;Yao 2003). Additionally, some reports have focused solely on the abiotic factors allowing parasite maintenance on hosts (Barker and Cone 2000) or on the pathological consequences of such co-infections for their hosts (Ojha and Hughes 2001).…”