Monogenean parasites of Lepomis gibbosus Linnaeus introduced into the River Durance, France

Abstract

SummaryThe pumpkinseed, Lepomis gibbosus Linnaeus (Centrarchidae), was introduced into the Europe from North America in late 19th century. In this study, we examine monogenean parasites of L. gibbosus from the River Durance in France. We found seven parasite species introduced together with the host: Actinocleidus recurvatus, A. oculatus, Onchocleidus similis, O. dispar, O. acer, Cleidodiscus robustus (Ancyrocephalidae) and Gyrodactylus macrochiri (Gyrodactylidae). Early diporpa (Diplozoidae), accidentally attached to the gills, represent a single parasite species acquired within the area of introduction. Three species, O. acer, C. robustus and G. macrochiri, are reported from Europe for the fi rst time.

Population genetic structure, parasite infection and somatic condition of pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus (Actinopterygii: Centrarchidae) in the Oder river basin

“…Single-species monogenean communities in non-native pumpkinseed populations comprise species of the genus Onchocleidus with O. dispar found at localities distant from the centre of pumpkinseed monogenean diversity in Europe (i.e., France and Germany;Havlátová et al, 2015;, including the River Dnieper in Ukraine(Rubtsova, 2015), fish farms in England(Hockley et al, 2011), reservoirs in Portugal and lentic water bodies in the lower Dyje basin in the Czech Republic(Ondračková et al, 2021) and lower Oder in Poland (this study). Nevertheless, fish host genetic data gave no indication of any close relation among the above-mentioned populations.…”

“…Due to the high host specificity, none of the species represents a significant disease risk for local fish species (Hoffman, 1999;Kvach et al, 2017). Monogenean parasites infecting centrarchids in their native range are diverse and mostly family specific (Beverley-Burton, 1984;Hoffman, 1999) and their co-introduction has been documented worldwide, including pumpkinseed in Europe (e.g., Havlátová et al, 2015;Ondračková et al, 2021), largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides (Lacepède, 1802) in Africa (Truter et al, 2017) or bluegill sunfish Lepomis macrochirus Rafinesque, 1819 in Asia (Maneepitaksanti & Nagasawa, 2012, 2013Muroga et al, 1980). Parasites acquired in the area of introduction usually display low host specificity or infect phylogenetically related local host species (Poulin & Mouillot, 2003), and this was indeed the case for pumpkinseed in the Oder river basin.…”

Limited parasite acquisition by non-native Lepomis gibbosus (Actinopterygii: Centrarchidae) at two ponds in the Upper Rhine basin, Germany

“…Ancyrocephalid monogeneans, which have a direct life cycle and display high host specificity, were co-introduced with their fish hosts to Germany and appear to have persisted and established stable populations at both ponds. Comparable North American ancyrocephalid diversity to ours has also been found in Italian (River Po; Galli et al ., 2005) and French (River Durance; Havlátová et al ., 2015) non-native populations of L. gibbosus . In comparison, the monogenean community in Black Sea drainage populations in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and the Czech and Slovak Republics, assessed between the 1950s and 1970s (Roman, 1953; Margaritov, 1968; Pashkevichute, 1971; references in Moravec, 2001) and more recently (Ondračková et al ., 2011; Rubtsova, 2015; Kvach et al ., 2018; Stoyanov et al , 2018), and in isolated ponds in Norway (Sterud & Jørgensen, 2006) and England (Hockley et al ., 2011), was less diverse than in the present study.…”

“…Fobert et al ., 2013) throughout Europe in recent decades, knowledge regarding parasite communities in this widely established non-native species remains scarce (but see Hockley et al ., 2011 or Stoyanov et al ., 2018). The majority of parasite studies to date have focused on a single parasite species, either acquired (Stavrescu-Bedivan et al ., 2014; Masson et al ., 2015) or co-introduced (Rubtsova, 2015; Kvach et al ., 2017), or a select group of parasites such as endoparasites (Košuthová et al ., 2009), nematodes (Pilecka-Rapacz & Sobecka, 2008) or monogeneans (Sterud & Jørgensen, 2006; Havlátová et al ., 2015). In their native range, centrarchid fishes exhibit high parasite diversity, summarized in Hoffman (1999).…”

First record of the American cestodeProteocephalus ambloplitis(Leidy, 1887) (Proteocephalidae) in Europe

“…European pumpkinseed populations host several co-introduced parasite species, including ancyrocephalid and gyrodactylid monogeneans (Sterud & Jørgensen, 2006; Ondračková et al ., 2011, 2019; Havlátová et al ., 2015; Kvach et al ., 2018b; Stoyanov et al ., 2017b) and one digenean (Kvach et al ., 2017; Stoyanov et al ., 2017a; Ondračková et al ., 2019). In this study, we report the first case of the possible introduction into Europe of a non-indigenous cestode native to the pumpkinseed's native range in North America.…”