A new species of Spirophilometra (Nematoda: Philometridae) from the yellowfin snook Centropomus robalito (Osteichthyes) in southern Mexico

Abstract

Abstract.A new nematode species, Spirophilometra pacifica sp. n. (Philometridae), is described from gravid female specimens collected from the mouth cavity (the upper palate) of the fish (yellow snook) Centropomus robalito (Centropomidae, Perciformes) from the Chantuto-Panzacola system, Chiapas, in the Pacific coast of Mexico. Its morphology is very similar to that of the species originally described as Philometra centropomi Caballero, 1974, but the gravid females of S. pacifica are about three times longer (body length 11.63-18.17 mm); host species and the geographical distribution of both these forms also differ. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination of S. pacifica, used for the first time for a Spirophilometra species, confirmed the presence of numerous minute cuticular spines on the body surface, 14 cephalic papillae arranged in two circlets, and two small lateral papilla-like caudal projections. It is evident that some features of P. centropomi were incorrectly described (its types are not available) and this species is now transferred to Spirophilometra as S. centropomi (Caballero, 1974) comb. n.

Helminth parasites of freshwater fish in Chiapas, Mexico

“…Known helminth parasites in this ichthyofauna include 47 species, from 37 genera and 22 families (Pineda-López 1985; Moravec et al 1993Moravec et al , 1998Moravec et al , 2007Moravec et al , 2009Moravec et al , 2010Vidal-Martínez 1995;Mendoza-Franco et al 2000;Vidal-Martínez et al 2001;Moravec 2002, 2004;AguilarAguilar et al 2003;Caspeta-Mandujano et al 2005Salgado-Maldonado et al 2005bSalgado-Maldonado 2006, 2008Cabañas-Carranza and Caspeta-Mandujano 2007), mostly from the family Cichlidae (14 species examined). Data are also available for other families, including the Ariidae (Potamarius usumacintae), Characidae (Brycon guatemalensis), Clupeidae (Dorosoma anale), Gerreidae (Eugerres mexicanus), Heptapteridae (Rhamdia guatemalensis), and Poeciliidae (Poecilia sphenops).…”

A new species of Philometra Costa, 1845 (Nematoda: Philometridae) from the freshwater fish (red piranha) Pygocentrus nattereri Kner (Characidae) in Amazonia, Brazil

“…morii Moravec, Bakenhaster &Fajer-Avila, 2010 from the subcutaneous tissue of the buccal cavity and sinuses of perciform marine fishes in the Gulf of Mexico (Yu & Wang, 1997;. This feature has also been described in a representative of the related genus Spirophilometra Parukhin, 1971, S. pacifica Moravec, Santana-Piñeros, González-Solís & Torres-Huerta, 2007, a parasite of the oral cavity of a brackish-water centropomid fish in Mexico (Moravec et al, 2007b). All these species differ from P. nattereri by some other morphological features, but also by their different host orders (Cypriniformes or Perciformes vs Characiformes), environment (marine vs freshwater) or geographical distributions.…”

“…To date, 12 species of these parasites have been reported from inland waters of the Neotropical Region (seven in South America and five in southern Mexico), including representatives of the genera Alinema Rasheed, 1963, Neophilometroides Moravec, Salgado-Maldonado & Aguilar-Aguilar, 2002, Nilonema Khalil, 1960, Philometra Costa, 1845, Philometroides Yamaguti, 1935and Spirophilometra Parukhin, 1971 (see Moravec, 2006;Moravec et al, 2007b;Caspeta-Mandujano et al, 2009); one of these species, Philometra fariaslimai Fortes, 1981, which is poorly described from female body fragments found in the abdominal cavity and intestine of estuarine ariid catfishes (from both freshwater and marine environments) in Brazil (Fortes, 1981), is considered a species inquirenda (Moravec, 2006 (Vaz & Pereira, 1934;Moravec et al, 2002;Caspeta-Mandujano et al, 2009). However, the allocation of the only Brazilian species P. baylisi to Philometra is uncertain (Moravec, 2006).…”

Caligus tenuifurcatus Wilson, 1937 (Copepoda, Siphonostomatoida), a parasite of centropomid and lutjanid teleosts from a coastal system of the Mexican Pacific

“…The parasites of these species have been studied recently along the Mexican coasts of the Pacific and they represent different metazoan groups (Moravec et al 2007, Violante-González et al 2007. Their copepod parasites, however, have been surveyed only recently (Suárez-Morales and SantanaPiZeros 2008).…”