Diploproctodaeinae (Digenea: Lepocreadiidae) from the coastal fishes of Queensland, Australia, with a review of the subfamily

Parasite Fauna of the White-Streaked Grouper (Epinephelus ongus) from the Thousand Islands, Java, Indonesia

PURPOSE

Fish parasites can cause diseases in humans and lead to commercial losses in fisheries and aquaculture. The objectives of this study were to analyze E. ongus's parasite fauna regarding food safety and parasite transmission risk between Epinephelus species and test whether E.ongus populations can be distinguished by their parasite community.

METHODS

We studied the metazoan parasite fauna of 30 white-streaked groupers Epinephelus ongus from the Thousand Islands, Java Sea, Indonesia, and compared the parasite community with specimens from Karimunjawa archipelago, Java Sea, from a former study. We used common fish parasitological methods for fish examination and parasite calculations.

RESULTS

We found 12 metazoan parasite species, establishing five new host and five new locality records, increasing the known parasite fauna of E. ongus by 21%. No anisakid worms infected E. ongus. All but one (trematode Gyliauchen cf. nahaensis) species have been previously reported from Epinephelus. Parasite abundance of E. ongus differed significantly between the two regions.

CONCLUSIONS

Due to a certain degree of host specificity to groupers, there is potential risk of parasite transmission from E. ongus into groupers in mariculture or surrounding fishes, which increases (sea) food security related health risks from zoonotic parasites and calls for better monitoring and management plans for E. ongus. The regional separation of the Thousand Islands and Karimunjawa with different food availability and fish ecology causes different parasite abundances, distinguishing two separate E. ongus populations by their parasite fauna.

Lepotrema Ozaki, 1932 (Lepocreadiidae: Digenea) from Indo-Pacific fishes, with the description of eight new species, characterised by morphometric and molecular features

We review species of the genus Lepotrema Ozaki, 1932 from marine fishes in the Indo-West Pacific. Prior to the present study six species were recognised. Here we propose eight new species on the basis of combined morphological and molecular analysis: Lepotrema acanthochromidis n. sp. ex Acanthochromis polyacanthus from the Great Barrier Reef (GBR); Lepotrema hemitaurichthydis n. sp. ex Hemitaurichthys polylepis and H. thompsoni from Palau and French Polynesia; Lepotrema melichthydis n. sp. ex Melichthys vidua from Palau and the GBR; Lepotrema amansis n. sp. ex Amanses scopas from the GBR; Lepotrema cirripectis n. sp. ex Cirripectes filamentosus, C. chelomatus and C. stigmaticus from the GBR; Lepotrema justinei n. sp. ex Sufflamen fraenatum from New Caledonia; Lepotrema moretonense n. sp. ex Prionurus microlepidotus, P. maculatus and Selenotoca multifasciata from Moreton Bay; and Lepotrema amblyglyphidodonis n. sp. ex Amblyglyphidodon curacao and Amphipron akyndynos from the GBR. We also report new host records and provide novel molecular data for two known species: Lepotremaadlardi Bray, Cribb & Barker, 1993 and Lepotremamonile Bray & Cribb, 1998. Two new combinations are formed, Lepotrema cylindricum (Wang, 1989) n. comb. (for Preptetos cylindricus) and Lepotrema navodonis (Shen, 1986) n. comb. (for Lepocreadium navodoni). With the exception of a handful of ambiguous records, the evidence is compelling that the host-specificity of species in this genus is overwhelmingly oioxenous or stenoxenous. This renders the host distribution in three orders and ten families especially difficult to explain as many seemingly suitable hosts are not infected. Multi-loci molecular data (ITS2 rDNA, 28S rDNA and cox1 mtDNA) demonstrate that Lepotrema is a good generic concept, but limited variability in sequence data and differences in phylogenies produced for different gene regions make relationships within the genus difficult to define.

Ningalooia psammopercae n. g., n. sp. (Digenea: Acanthocolpidae) from the Waigieu seaperch Psammoperca waigiensis (Cuvier) (Perciformes: Latidae) on the Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

Ningalooia psammopercae n. g., n. sp. is described from the intestine of the Waigieu seaperch Psammoperca waigiensis Cuvier (Perciformes: Latidae) on the Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. The new genus and species are distinctive within the Acanthocolpidae for the combination of the absence of enlarged spines around the oral sucker, a blind ending H-shaped intestine and a deeply lobed ovary.

Lepocreadiidae (Digenea) from the batfish of the genus Platax Cuvier (Teleostei: Ephippidae) from the southern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia

The following species are described from Platax spp.: Neomultitestis aspidogastriformis n. sp., from P. teira, off Heron Island, Queensland, which can be distinguished from its congeners by the transversely elongate ventral sucker divided into three loculi and probably by testis number; Multitestis magnacetabulum Mamaev, 1970, from P. teira, off Heron Island, Queensland; Diploproctodaeum rutellum (Mamaev, 1970), from P. teira, off Heron Island, Queensland; Diploproctodaeum tsubameuo n. sp., from P. batavianus, from the Swain Reefs, off Queensland, which differs from its congeners in its overlapping, posteriorly attenuated testes and 38-55 ovarian lobes; and Diplocreadium sp., from P. batavianus, from the Swain Reefs, off Queensland.

Two new species of lepocreadiid trematodes of marine fishes from the Taiwan Straits, China

Two new species of lepocreadiid trematodes are reported from marine fishes from the Taiwan Straits, China: Diploproctodaeum spinosus n. sp. from the intestine of Takifugu oblongus (= Fugu oblongus) and Preptetos parapristipomae n. sp. from Parapristipoma trilineatum. Diploproctodaeum spinosus differs from the known species of Diploproctodaeum, with 1 spine at the base of the ejaculatory duct. Preptetos parapristipomae is most similar to Preptetos rotto in having an entire ovary but differs from it in the sucker ratio, distribution of the uterus, position of the cirrus sac, and locality.