A Linguatulid Parasite from North American Fishes

Abstract

During the examination of fishes the writer has found an apparently new species of linguatulid living as a parasite in the liver, mesentaries, and swimbladder of the yellow bullhead, Ameiurus natalis (Le Sueur) and the pumpkinseed, Eupomotis gibbosus (Linnaeus). The fishes were collected from an artificial lake, about one hundred years old, near Gibsonville, N. C. As far as the author has been able to learn these are the first linguatulids reported as parasites of North American fish. The taxonomic position of Linguatulidae has been a puzzle to zoologists for many years and even now there is some controversy as to the position of this group in the animal kingdom. The group has been placed with the cestodes, trematodes, nematodes, and leeches. Van Beneden was the first to recognize their arthropod nature and placed them in crustacea. Schibart suggested that they were Acarina and he was supported by Leuckart, who advanced embryological and anatomical evidence to support this view. Shipley (1898) divides the family into two genera, as suggested by Leuckart, and describes twenty-four species. Shipley (1909) adds a third genus and lists twenty-six species. Sambon (1922) divides the family into thirty genera and forty-six species. In describing these he refers to external characteristics and anatomical characters which are easily seen. Linguatulids have been reported from North America as parasites of birds, reptiles, and mammals. Ward (1899) reported Reighardia sternalis (Diesing, 1864) as a parasite in the Common Tern and Bonaparte's Gull. Both hosts were collected in the Great Lakes region. Sambon (1922) records eight species as parasites of North American snakes, alligators, and mammals. Hett (1915) describes Porocephalus globicephalus from a single female specimen from the lungs of an American moccasin, Tropidontus fasciatus (Linn). Job and Cooper (1917) give additional information concerning this species from specimens taken from the black snake Bascanion constrictor (Linn) collected at Garrison-on-Hudson, New York. H. W. Stunkard of New York University informed me that he found linguatulids in the lungs of turtles. Diesing (1835) grouped a number of linguatulids from fishes collected in Brazil under the name Pentastoma gracile Diesing. He reported twenty species of fishes (nine in family Siluridae) as hosts of linguatulids. Subtriquetra subtriqueta (Diesing, 1835) Sambon, 1922, was reported from Acara coscuda from Brazil. Beauchamps (1918) records