Parasitic copepods on immigrant and native clupeid fishes caught in Egyptian coastal waters off Alexandria

Abstract

Three species of parasitic copepods, one each from the siphonostomatoid families Lernanthropidae and Lernaeopodidae and one from the cyclopoid family Bomolochidae, are redescribed based on material collected from the gills of four fish species belonging to the family Clupeidae caught from coastal waters off Alexandria, Egypt. The recorded parasites are: Mitrapus oblongus (Pillai, 1964), found on Etrumeus teres (Dekay), an immigrant species from the Red Sea, and on Sardinella aurita Valenciennes, a native Mediterranean species; Clavellisa ilishae Pillai, 1962 found only on S. aurita; and Nothobomolochus fradei Marques, 1965 found on Herklotsichthys punctatus (Rüppell), an immigrant species from the Red Sea, and on Sardina pilchardus (Walbaum), a native Mediterranean species. The first two of these copepods have been reported before on clupeid hosts from the Indian Ocean. The third was known from the eastern South Atlantic and the Arabian Gulf. None of the copepods has previously been recorded in the Mediterranean. All of the parasites reported here constitute new records for these hosts. Two of the hosts are Erythrean (=Lessepsian) immigrants and were caught in Mediterranean waters off the Egyptian coast. The original description of N. fradei (Marques, 1965) is inadequate by modern standards. This species is fully described here for the first time. The male of M. oblongus was briefly described by Pillai (1964), but its mouthparts are described in detail here for the first time.

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“…Co-invasion of the fish and their parasites has previously been reported for parasitic copepods, gill parasitic monogeneans and for endoparasitic digeneans on fish hosts (Fischthal, 1980;Diamant et al, 1999;Pasternak et al, 2007;ElRashidy and Boxshall, 2010;. In addition to coinvasion of parasites and their hosts, the phenomenon of host switching of some parasitic copepods was reported by El-Rashidy and Boxshall (2010 …”

A new species of parasitic copepod Nothobomolochus and redescription of Orbitacolax hapalogenyos (Yamaguti and Yamasu, 1959) (Cyclopoida: Bomolochidae) off Iraq

“…In this study, a new species of Nothobomolochus is described based on material collected from the hilsa shad Tenualosa ilisha (Hamilton, 1822) (Actinopterygii, Clupeidae), off Iraq. Nothobomolochus fradei Marques, 1965 was reported from the Arabian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea (Ho and Sey 1996;El-Rashidy and Boxshall 2010), likewise N. triceros (Bassett-Smith, 1898) has also been reported from Kuwait Bay (Ho et al 2000). In this study, another bomolochid Orbitacolax hapalogenyos (Yamaguti and Yamasu, 1959) is redescribed since previous descriptions were incomplete.…”

“…In contrast, N. fradei has been reported from several fishes, but not from silver pomfret or hilsa shad (Ho and Sey 1996;El-Rashidy and Boxshall 2010). The new species from Iraq was found on a host T. ilisha of the family Clupeidae.…”

“…n. reported off Iraq, differs from its congeners by having the following combination of characters in the adult female: 1) anal somite not spinulate; 2) paragnath blunt and robust; 3) maxilla with slender proximal segment and distal segment with 2 accessory processes terminally; 4) the distal exopodal segment of leg 1 with 3 small spines; and 5) the terminal endopodal segment of leg 4 carrying one long and one short spine. The two congeners, N. fradei and N. triceros, have been reported from the Arabian Gulf (Ho and Sey 1996;El-Rashidy and Boxshall 2010). The new species closely resembles N. triceros in the body structure but prominently differs in: i) anal somite without spinules (vs. two patches of spinules in N. triceros); ii) paragnath has setules basally (vs. presence of setules both distally and basally in N. triceros); iii) maxilla has a slender proximal segment (vs. stout in N. triceros); iv) the distal exopodal segment of leg 1 has 3 small spines (vs. 4 spines in N. triceros); v) the terminal endopodal segment of leg 4 has 2 spines (vs. 3 spines in N. triceros).…”

On some Indo-Pacific boring endolithic Bivalvia species introduced into the Mediterranean Sea with their host – spread of Sphenia rueppelli A. Adams, 1850

“…Other documented cases of Indo-Pacific species introduced with hosts include the parasitic barnacle Heterosaccus dollfusi Boschma, 1960, introduced with its host, the swimming crab, Charybdis longicollis Leene, 1938(INNOCENTI & GALIL, 2007 and three parasitic copepods on immigrant and native clupeid fish caught in Egyptian coastal waters off Alexandria (EL-RASHIDY & BOXSHALL, 2010) …”