Microhabitat preference, body size, and egg allocation in the gill parasite Naobranchia lizae (Copepoda)

Teemer, Sara R; Buron, Isaure de; Gacula, Chelsea V; Sparkes, Timothy C.

doi:10.1007/s00436-020-06625-3

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Unsurprisingly, the realized niche of a parasite is frequently smaller than the potential niche (Sukhdeo and Croll 1981), resulting from constraints on attachment, competition and nutrient acquisition, factors that can lead to hyper specialization within a larger organ. For example, the gills of sh are often segregated between parasites such as Monogenean atworms or parasitic copepods which will localize to particular gill arches in sh (Arme and Halton 1972;Teemer et al 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infection prevalence, intensity, and tissue damage caused by the parasitic flatworm, Bdelloura candida, in the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus)

Brianik¹,

Bopp²,

Piechocki³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Parasite infection dynamics can have profound implications on a host’s fitness; yet, there is a dearth of information on parasites in the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) (Linnaeus 1758), a species that has experienced population declines in recent decades. Therefore, we aimed to quantify the prevalence, intensity, and gill surface area coverage of the ectoparasitic flatworm (cocoon and adult stages), Bdelloura candida in adult (n = 29), sub-adult (n = 7) and juvenile (n = 32) horseshoe crabs collected from Moriches Bay, NY (40.7810° N, 72.7171° W) in 2019 and 2020. Subsamples of horseshoe crab gill tissue (10%) were collected from live specimen, then B. candida cocoons were enumerated across the gill subsamples using microscopy while the extent of tissue damage was quantified with histology. B. candida was present in all adult and sub-adult crabs (100%), whereas juveniles exhibited 6.2% prevalence. Cocoon intensities per sample ranged from 28 to 805 cocoons, with 4.0–94.0% of gill lamellae harboring cocoons. In infected individuals, the total cocoon surface area coverage on gill tissues ranged from 0.06–14.51%, with higher cocoon intensities observed in the ventral-most gill quartiles relative to the dorsal-most gill regions. Sex was strongly supported as a primary driver behind B. candida infection intensities with adult females harboring higher intensities. Among infected gill lamellae, cocoon intensity was lower in mitochondrial-rich regions relative to mitochondrial-poor regions. These results provide novel insight into B. candida infection dynamics across horseshoe crab demographics, but further research is necessary to quantify the physiological impacts of the infection on L. polyphemus.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%