Community and infracommunities of metazoan parasites in Hemiodus unimaculatus (Hemiodontidae) from Jari River basin, a tributary of Amazon River (Brazil)

Odonei Moia Almeida,Marcos Tavares-Dias,Marcos Sidney Brito Oliveira

doi:10.1590/s1984-29612021090

Odonei Moia Almeida, Marcos Tavares-Dias + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s1984-29612021090

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Abstract

Abstract Parasites are an important part of biodiversity, and knowledge of species and their relationship with their hosts helps in monitoring an ecosystem over time. The aim of this study was to investigate the fauna of metazoan parasites in Hemiodus unimaculatus from the Jari River, in the eastern Amazon region, northern Brazil. Of the fish examined, 96.7% were parasitized by one or more species, and a total of 336 parasites such as Dactylogyridae gen. sp.1, Dactylogyridae gen. sp.2, Dactylogyridae gen. sp.3, Dactylogyridae gen. sp.4, Gyrodactilydae gen. sp., Urocleidoides sp.1, Urocleidoides sp.2, Urocleidoides sp.3, metacercariae of Digenea gen. sp., Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) inopinatus, Contracaecum sp., Neoechinorhynchus sp. and Acarina gen. sp. The parasite community showed low Brillouin diversity (0.58 ± 0.29), low evenness (0.44 ± 0.21) and low species richness (7.40 ± 3.83). There was a predominance of ectoparasites, mainly monogeneans and digeneans. The parasites showed an aggregate dispersion, except for P. (S.) inopinatus, which had a random dispersion. The size of the hosts had no effect on diversity, species richness and abundance of parasites, but other factors structured the parasite community. This is the first study on the parasite community and infracommunities in H. unimaculatus.

Highlights

The Amazon River system is home to the greatest aquatic diversity on the planet, as this large Neotropical basin has a considerable volume of water and unique environmental characteristics, in addition to several tributaries of various sizes throughout several countries of South America (Soares et al, 2008; Val, 2019)
Hemiodus unimaculatus (Bloch, 1794), a Characiformes of the family Hemiodontidae, is distributed in hydrographic basins of Suriname, French Guiana, Peru, and in Brazil it occurs in the basins of the Amazon, Ucayali, Japurá, Negro, Solimões-Amazonas, Madeira, Trombetas, Tapajós, Xingu, Tocantins and Oiapoque (Martins et al, 2017; Queiroz et al, 2013; Soares et al, 2008; Vasconcelos & Tavares-Dias, 2016)
Feeding habits are important in the acquisition of endoparasites, while the host habitat, behavior and swimming ability of the parasites are important in the infestation by ectoparasites (Guidelli et al, 2003; Oliveira et al, 2017; Gonçalves et al, 2018)

Summary

Introduction

The Amazon River system is home to the greatest aquatic diversity on the planet, as this large Neotropical basin has a considerable volume of water and unique environmental characteristics, in addition to several tributaries of various sizes throughout several countries of South America (Soares et al, 2008; Val, 2019) This large hydrographic basin that forms rivers, lakes, streams and floodplains of different sizes and shapes, has different environments with different types of water (white, black and clear) with various properties and with different levels of oxygen and pH (Val, 2019), such as the Jari River (Abreu & Cunha, 2016). Hemiodus unimaculatus (Bloch, 1794), a Characiformes of the family Hemiodontidae, is distributed in hydrographic basins of Suriname, French Guiana, Peru, and in Brazil it occurs in the basins of the Amazon, Ucayali, Japurá, Negro, Solimões-Amazonas, Madeira, Trombetas, Tapajós, Xingu, Tocantins and Oiapoque (Martins et al, 2017; Queiroz et al, 2013; Soares et al, 2008; Vasconcelos & Tavares-Dias, 2016) This Hemiodontidae inhabits beaches, lagoons, lakes and rivers with white, clear and black waters, being able to be captured mainly in flooded forests. It is a benthopelagic and migratory fish, with omnivorous feeding habits, feeding on detritus, periphyton, silt, filamentous algae, aquatic macrophytes, seeds, flowers, fruits, microcrustaceans and, occasionally, small invertebrates and insect larvae of Diptera, Heteroptera and Ephemeroptera (Cintra et al, 2013; Queiroz et al, 2013; Santos et al, 2004; Silva et al, 2008; Soares et al, 2008, Marinho et al, 2021)

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