Infection levels and seasonality of monogeneans in the largemouth bassMicropterus salmoides(Perciformes: Centrarchidae) from Nuevo León, Mexico

Abstract

Largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, is a native fish species with special importance for sport fishing competitions in Nuevo León, Mexico. However, no study has investigated the parasitic fauna of M. salmoides, and no reports are available on monogenean parasites in this fish species. Therefore, we described the monogenean parasites of M. salmoides and the effects of season and fish condition factor in five reservoirs: La Boca (LB), El Cuchillo-Solidaridad (CS), Sombreretillo (S), Laguna Salinillas (LS) and Cerro Prieto (CP). The monogeneans infecting M. salmoides were Clavunculus unguis and Acolpenteron ureteroecetes (collected in all localities), as well as Syncleithrium fusiformis, Haplocleidus furcatus, Clavunculus bifurcatus and Urocleidus principalis (CS). Clavunculus unguis had the highest prevalence in fish from all reservoirs. The abundance of monogeneans was generally greater in late spring to autumn than in winter. Although season was not correlated with abundance (r s = 0.0934, P < 0.0154), the months of highest temperature (from May to September) were positively correlated with parasite abundance. A significant association was observed between fish condition factor and the presence of monogeneans (P < 0.05), except for A. ureteroecetes. Our findings include five new geographic records for C. unguis, S. fusiformis, H. furcatus and C. bifurcatus.

Helmintos Parásitos De Micropterus Salmoides (Lacepéde, 1802) Una Especie Invasora en Brasil: Un Caso De Co-Introducción Y Spillback

“…The species O. principalis has a high level of specificity to the genus Micropterus, what makes it presence an event of co-introduction (Maitland & Price, 1969;Margolis & Kabata, 1984;Collins & Janovy, 2003). Although, over the several monogenean species that parasite M. salmoides (Hoffman, 1999;Galaviz-Silva et al, 2016;Costa et al, 2018), only one was found in this study. This shows a clear example of enemy release, still the high abundance of O. principalis in two of the reservoirs sampled could be a compensation of the poor parasite richness (Colautti et al, 2004;Roche et al, 2010).…”

“…(Hoffman, 1999;Tavakol et al, 2015). The same is true for the monogenean O. principalis (Galaviz-Silva et al, 2016). However, the nematode P. peraccuratus is a parasite native to South America, which makes its infection in M. salmoides a possible instance of parasite spillback (Azevedo et al, 2006;Takemoto et al, 2009).…”