Sea lice (Copepoda: Caligidae) from South Africa, with descriptions of two new species of Caligus

Abstract

Thirteen species of sea lice (family Caligidae) are reported from a range of elasmobranch and actinopterygian fishes caught off South Africa or obtained from public aquaria in South Africa. Two new species of Caligus Müller, 1785 are described: C. linearisn. sp. from Pomatomus saltatrix (Linnaeus) and C. tumulusn. sp. from Chrysoblephus cristiceps (Valenciennes). A supplementary description is provided for both sexes of Caligus tetrodontis Barnard, 1948 taken from Amblyrhynchotes honckenii (Bloch) and previous records of this parasite from South African fishes are critically reviewed. It is concluded that Caligus material from Arothron hispidus Linnaeus was previously misidentified as C. tetrodontis and is in urgent need of re-examination. Morphological and molecular observations on Caligus furcisetifer Redkar, Rangnekar & Murti, 1949 indicate that this copepod is phenotypically and genetically identical to Lepeophtheirus natalensis Kensley & Grindley, 1973, and the latter becomes a junior subjective synonym of C. furcisetifer. We include new geographical distribution records for Caligus longipedis Bassett-Smith, 1898, C. rufimaculatus Wilson, 1905 and Lepeophtheirus spinifer Kirtisinghe, 1937, extending into South African waters, as well as both new distribution and host records for Alebion gracilis Wilson, 1905, Caligus dakari van Beneden, 1892 and Lepeophtheirus acutus Heegaard, 1943. The molecular analysis confirmed the monophyly of the genus Caligus. The South African species of Caligus did not cluster together, but the two included South African species of Lepeophtheirus were recovered as sister taxa.

Integrative Morphological and Genetic Characterisation of the Fish Parasitic Copepod Ergasilus mirabilis Oldewage & van As, 1987: Insights into Host Specificity and Distribution in Southern Africa

“…Amplification reactions for each gene region were carried out in 25 µL volumes using: 12.5 µL of DreamTaq PCR Master Mix (2X) (ThermoFischer Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA), 1.25 µL of 10 µM of each primer, 3 µL of DNA product and 7 µL of double distilled water. Thermocycling conditions followed Song et al [85] for the 18S and 28S rRNA gene regions and Hayes et al [87] for the COI gene regions. Positive PCR products were verified by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis and sent to the commercial sequencing company Inqaba Biotechnical Industries (Pty) Ltd. (Pretoria, South Africa) for purification and sequencing in both directions.…”

First evidence of sea lice (Caligus fugu) infestation in captive map pufferfish in Thailand: Case report

“…This report highlighted the evidence of C. fugu in captive map puffer, which was caught in the Phuket Sea of Thailand, and characterized the parasites by the morphological observation under stereomicroscope. C. fugu was specified by a reduced leg 4 (Yamaguti, 1936;Ohtsuka et al, 2009;Venmathi Maran et al, 2011;Hayes et al, 2021). In addition, previous studies suggested that C. fugu seems to disappear from the Grass puffer (T. niphobles) in cold seasons (Venmathi Maran et al, 2011;Okawachi et al, 2012).…”

Parasites of pufferfish, Lagocephalus spp. and Torquigener flavimaculosus of the Israeli Mediterranean: A new case of Lessepsian endoparasites

“…The sample size given in brackets. c 1 El-Lamie and Abdel-Mawla (2012) ; 2 Özak et al (2012) ; 3 Jianying et al (2003) ; 4 Hung et al (2020) ; 5 Quilichini et al (2015) ; 6 Bray and Justine (2014) ; 7 Toman (1992) ; 8 Beveridge et al (2014) ; 9 Bakopoulos et al (2017) ; 10 Moravec and Justine (2008) ; 11 Moravec and Justine (2009) ; 12 Hayes et al (2021) ; 13 Justine (2010) . …”