Reports of Kroyeria species collected from South African waters with notes on the host–parasite associations

Abstract

There are 21 species in the genus Kroyeria of which nine have been reported from hosts caught off South Africa. Host–parasite associations were reported for K. dispar, K. papillipes and K. sphyrnae. Kroyeria specimens were collected from the gill filaments of elasmobranch hosts, fixed and preserved in 70% ethanol and the prevalence, mean intensity and mean abundance calculated. Kroyeria lineata from Mustelus palumbes constitutes a new host and geographical record, K. rhophemophaga from Galeorhinus galeus a new geographical record and K. carchariaeglauci from Carcharhinus amboinensis an additional new host record. Except for K. dispar, Kroyeria species generally display low parasite loads on their hosts. Prevalence varied between 11.8% (CI: 1.5–36.4%) and 94.4% (CI: 86.4–98.5%). Mean intensity and mean abundance values ranged from four to 72.8 (SE 11.1) individuals per infected host and from 0.7 (SE 0.5) to 65.7 (SE 10.5) individuals per examined host, respectively. All Kroyeria species examined display an aggregated distribution pattern. This study confirms previous suggestions that Kroyeria species are generally host specific, with only a few species found on multiple hosts.