A monogenean fish parasite, Gyrodactylus chileani n. sp., belonging to a novel marine species lineage found in the South-Eastern Pacific and the Mediterranean and North Seas

Abstract

Gyrodactylus chileani n. sp. is the first Gyrodactylus species reported from Chile. It is an ectoparasite living on fins and skin of a small fish, the Chilean tidal pond dweller Helcogrammoides chilensis (Cancino) (Perciformes: Tripterygiidae). A phylogenetic analysis based on 5.8S+ITS2 of rDNA placed the new species close to marine Gyrodactylus species found in Europe: G. orecchiae Paladini, Cable, Fioravanti, Faria, Cave & Shinn, 2009 on gilthead seabream Sparus aurata L. from the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Sea fish farms (Perciformes: Sparidae), and an undescribed species on the black goby Gobius niger L. from the North Sea (Perciformes: Gobiidae). A morphological description of the latter species is unavailable. These geographically distant parasite samples on different host families form a new well supported Gyrodactylus orecchiae lineage. Using molecular phylogenetics, it is shown that the marine species groups of Gyrodactylus may have a worldwide distribution.