Occurrence of two species of Crepidostomum in brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) from north-east Ireland, with special reference to Crepidostomum metoecus Braun 1900.

Abstract

During the course of preliminary studies on the helminth fauna of local freshwater fishes two species of Crepidostomum, obtained from the intestine of brown trout, were identified as C. farionis (Müller) and C. metoecus Braun. Although C.farionis is a common parasite of the fresh-water salmonoid fishes of the Northern Hemisphere, in Ireland it has been recorded only from trout (Salmo trutta). The first Irish specimens were recorded by Southern (1912) as Stephanophiala laureata (Zeder), and came from fish from a stream in Clare Island and from the Owenwee River, Westport. Later, Vickers (1951) found that trout from the River Moyola, Co. Londonderry, and River Ravarnett, Co. Down, were infected with this species. Prior to the present study, C. farionis was the only representative of the genus to have been recorded from the British Isles. C. metoecus is therefore a new record, not only from Ireland, but from the British Isles as well. Elsewhere it is known to occur in Sweden [ = C. suecicum Nybelin, 1933], Austria, and possibly also in Thuringia, where cercariae were found which Nöller (1928) assigned to C. metoecus.