Piscine Hosts Research Articles

Onchocleidus ferox (Mueller, 1934) and O. similis Mueller, 1936 (Monogenea: Ancyrocephalinae) from Lepomis gibbosus L. (Pisces: Centrarchidae) in Ontario, Canada: anatomy, systematic position, and possible evolution

Onchocleidus ferox (Mueller, 1934) Mueller, 1936 and O. similis Mueller, 1936 (Monogenea: Ancyrocephalinae) from the gills of Lepomis gibbosus L. (pumpkinseed) in Ontario, Canada, are redescribed with details of their internal anatomy as well as the sclerotized components of the haptor and copulatory complex. A revised generic diagnosis incorporating features of the reproductive systems is presented. The North American freshwater ancyrocephalines which have a penis of similar type to that of O. ferox appear to be confined to genera of the Centrarchidae, Percichthyidae, and Etheostomatini. A similar penis occurs in ancyrocephalines parasitizing marine percoid fishes. Possible evolutionary pathways for this group of monogenes, based on an awareness of the probable origins of their piscine hosts, are discussed.

Blood parasites of fish from the northwestern Atlantic Ocean

Examination of thick and thin blood smears from 5013 marine fish from the northwestern Atlantic Ocean revealed 25 of 59 species to be infected with one or more of the following blood parasites: trypanosomes (27% of 3610), trypanoplasms (9% of 588), piroplasms (26% of 2584), and haemogregarines (36% of 1708). Higher prevalences of infection were observed in cold-water, benthic, sedentary fish than in warm-water, littoral, epipelagic, or midwater species. Trypanosome infections were more prevalent among fish taken off the Labrador – east Newfoundland coasts, lower in those from St. Pierre Bank, Grand Bank, and Gulf of St. Lawrence, and lowest in forms from the Scotian Shelf. Seven of nine species of hematophagous leeches harboured asexual stages of haemogregarines, whereas natural infections of trypanosomes occurred in one leech, Johanssonia arctica. Using five species of laboratory-reared leeches and laboratory-initiated infections of trypanosomes in piscine hosts, development of Trypanosoma murmanensis was observed only in J. arctica. It is suggested that the distribution of trypanosomes of marine fish is related to that of J. arctica, a cold-water species, whereas the other haematozoan infections might be attributed to those leech species that are associated with their respective piscine hosts.

Spirocamallanus cricotus (Nematoda): Isoelectric focusing and spectrophotometric characterization of its hemoglobin and that of its piscine host, Micropogonias undulatus

The hemoglobins of Spirocamallanus cricotus, a reddish-colored, camallanid nematode, and its Atlantic croacker fish host, Micropogonias undulatus, were characterized with spectrophotometry and isoelectric focusing. Hemoglobin from female parasites' perienteric fluid and homogenized male parasites gave Spectrophotometric peaks at 412, 539, and 575 nm, whereas female worms drained of perienteric fluid and homogenized differed by having a Soret peak of 408 nm. Changing the ionic strength of the buffer from 0.1 to 0.01 M shifted the Soret peak to 406 nm for the female parasites' perienteric fluid and ground male parasites and 404 nm for homogenized female parasites. In all cases, the β band had a higher absorption than the α band suggesting a high O 2 affinity for the parasite hemoglobin. Host hemoglobin had peaks of 406, 437, and 577 nm. Isoelectric focusing not only confirmed the Spectrophotometric evidence that host and parasite hemoglobins differed, but also showed that the parasite's analyzed hemoglobin fractions differed from one another by having different isoelectric points.

Activities of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory During Fiscal Year 1977-78: A Summary Report

Eleuterius, Charles K. 1978. Classification of Mississippi Sound as to estuary type by vertical salinity structure. Journal o j the Mississippi Academy of Sciences Eleuterius, Lionel N. 1978. Population variation in the salt 23(Sup.):9 1. marsh rush, Juncus roemerianus. Journal of the Mississippi Academy ojSciences 23(Sup.):6. . 1978. Observations on the red alga, Caloglossa Ieprieurii, in salt marshes. Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences 23(Sup.):7. Foster, Carolyn A. and T. G. Sarphie. 1978. Ectocommensal relationship of the peritrichous ciliate Zoothamnium sp. to Penaeid shrimp: electron microscopic observations. Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences Fusco, Alan C. 1977. Hemoglobins of the nematode Spirocamallanus sp. and its piscine host ,Micropogon undulatus. Program and Abstracts of the American Society of Parasitologists 52ndAnnualMeeting, 14-1 9August 19 77, p. 63. Higgins, George G. and Charles K. Eleuterius. 1978. Mississippi Sound: volume, surface area and bathymetric statistics. Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences Hossler, F. E., J . R. Ruby and T. D. McIlwain. 1978. Surface morphology of the gill filaments of the mullet, Mugil cephalus. Proceedings of the 7th Annual Texas Society of Electron Microscopy-Louisiana Society of Electron Microscopy Symposium 7( 1):40. Lofton, S. R. and D. W. Cook. 1978. Evaluation of the 48hour IMViC plate procedure for identification of Escherichia coli from seafoods. Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences 23(Sup.):77. Lukens, Ron. 1978. Notes on Stenopus scutellatus and S. hispidus (Decapoda, Stenopodidae) from Mississippi. Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences 23(Sup.):113. McGraw, Katherine A. 1977. Oyster growth and survival study in Mississippi Sound. University of Washington (Seattle), College of Fisheries, 1977 Research in Fisheries. Contribution No. 470:75. Ogle, John T. 1978. Predator prey relationship betwecn blue crabs and cultchless oyster seed. Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences 23(Sup.): 112. Otvos, E. G. and Wade Howat. 1978. Surface and nearsurface Pleistocene littoral-marine deposits, Mississippi coast. Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences Overstreet, Robin M. 1977. Infections of the trypanorhynch cestode Poecilancistrium caryophyllum in flesh of a marine fish. Program and Abstracts of the American Society of Parasitologists 52nd Annual Meeting, 14-1 9 August 1977, p. 52. Snazelle, Theodore E. and David W. Cook. 1978. Carbohydrate inhibition of pigment formation in a pigmented, asporogenous mutant of Bacillus cereus. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Sciences 53(2):61. Stapp, Dennis S. 1978. A method of thermal structure prediction for estuaries. Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences 23(Sup.):90. 23(Sup.): 1 11.

A Redescription of Crassicutis archosargi, a Digenean Exhibiting an Unusual Tegumental Attachment

The homalometrine Crassicutis archosargi from the northern Gulf or Mexico is redescribed, and some related digeneans are discussed. Numerous unidentified refractile bodies occurred in the tegument and other tissues of a few specimens of C. archosargi, and an intimate relationship between the parasite and its piscine host resulting from a modified tegument is reported for others. Binding by the described adhesive tegument increases the number of known ways digeneans attach to their hosts. Several specimens also harbored a histozoic myxosporidan in several tissues and a flagellate, Hexamita sp., in their ceca.

On the morphology ofNeogyrodactylus indicusn.g., n.sp., a viviparous monogenetic trematode (fam. Gyrodactylidae) fromArgulus indicusWeber

During an examination of fishes for the parasitic crustaceans, fourteen specimens ofArgulusbelonging to two different species, viz.A. indicusWeber, 1892 (eight specimens) andA. siamensisWilson, 1926 (six specimens) were collected from the fish,Ophiocephalus maruliusHamilton, taken from a canal in the environs of the village Champahati, District 24 Parganas, West Bengal. Out of seven fishes so obtained only three were found to be infected with the copepod parasites. While examining these copepods, the attention of the writer was drawn to a viviparous monogenetic trematode infecting only one species ofArgulus, viz.A. indicus. It was rather unfortunate that the piscine host could not be examined at that stage for the helminthic infection. About one hundred specimens of this trematode were collected from the ventral surfaces of the copepods.

Further Notes on the Leeches (Piscicolidae) Living on Fresh-Water Fishes of North America

This study is based upon the examination of various leech collections, especially Piscicolidae, collected in Lake Erie, Ohio, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Southern Saskatchewan, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida which have yielded species previously unreported from these localities, more or less remote from those previously known, as well as from new hosts. Knowledge of the leeches of North American freshwater fish is so meager that any definite host and distributional record is of importance. It is hoped the article will prove useful to the ichthyologist, the ecologist and the zoologist as an aid in the identification, as based on external morphological characters, of fresh-water fish leeches. For the most part the leeches were obtained during routine autopsies for internal fish parasites or were collected in connection with general faunistic studies. Besides the report of new distributional and host records, the species concepts of Illinobdella richardsoni Meyer, 1940 and I. moorei Meyer, 1940 are emended in order to include some forms found in the study. The ten host-fish families represented comprise twenty-one species, fifteen of which are reported for the first time as hosts. There were eleven Centrarchidae species, two Percidae and one species each of seven other families (Salmonidae, Etheostomidae, Cyprinidae, Esocidae, Coregonidae, Catostomidae, Sciaenidae and Ameiuridae) which served as hosts. Concerning the Parasite-host distribution, Illinobdella moorei showed the widest distribution, occurring on sixteen different piscine host species. I. richardsoni was a poor second, occurring on five different fish species. I. alba third, being found on two. While Piscicola milneri, P. punctata, Piscicolaria reducta, Actinobdella triannulata2 and Placobdella montifera each occurred on only a single different host species of fish. Although previous workers, viz., Johansson (1929) and Meyer (1940) failed to call special attention to this point, they do report numerous different fresh-water fish species serving as hosts for a single species of leech. It is true, of course, that some species of Piscicolidae have been reported from

Some more myxosporidia observed in Canadian fishes

Seven species of marine fishes and three of fresh or brackish water Canadian fishes have yielded new or known Myxosporidia. The marine fishes were from St Andrews, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia, places 250–275 miles apart by sea, and from the Labrador coast. The brackish and freshwater fishes were obtained in Montreal and the Salmon River, Nova Scotia.Descriptions and illustrations are given of the morphology of five new species of Myxosporidia: Ceratomyxa urophysis, Myxoproteus myoxocephali, Myxidium myoxocephali, Myxosoma diaphana and Henneguya amiae.Chloromyxum leydigi Mingazzini, C. granulosum Davis, Myxidium lieberkuhni Bütschli, Myxidium gadi Georgévitch and Zschokkella hildae Auerbach are recorded from new piscine hosts in Canada.Some effects of the Myxosporidian infections, both macroscopic and microscopic, on their hosts are considered. Comparison of the effects of similar infections of Myxosporidia on allied fishes in Normandy and Eastern Canada has shown a general similarity between them.The economic importance of some Myxosporidian infections of the edible fish examined is shown by parasitism of the cod, haddock and sculpin. Amia calva is also used for food in Montreal. The possibility of edible fishes acquiring Myxosporidian infections by way of their food is noted, with reference to the host-specificity of the Myxosporidia of Fundulus heteroclitus described by Bond.The influence of environment on and powers of adaptation to different habitats exhibited by certain Myxosporidia is discussed.Some remarks are made on the zoogeographical distribution of certain Myxosporidia and their piscine hosts.