Morphological, molecular, and life cycle study of a new species of Oligogonotylus Watson, 1976 (Digenea, Cryptogonimidae) from Colombia

Abstract

The present study describes Oligogonotylus andinussp. nov. and its life cycle from a rural fish farm in Sopetrán, Antioquia, Colombia. The endemic species of snail Aroapyrgus colombiensis and the fishes Poecilia caucana and Andinoacara latifrons are identified as the first intermediate host, the second intermediate host and the definitive host, respectively. The new species was defined through an integrative approach, combining the traditional morphology of its developmental stages with molecular analyses of the markers ITS2 from ribosomal DNA and COI from mitochondrial DNA. This new species can be distinguished from its congeners by genetic divergence, the position of the vitelline fields, and the number of gonotyls. This work represents the first report of a species of this genus in South America.

Trematodes and acanthocephalans associated with the yellow mojarra (Caquetaia kraussii) in a coastal lagoon system, San Onofre, Colombia

“…The infection parameters in this study for O. andinus in yellow mojarra contrast with those found in blue mojarra, where the abundance and prevalence values reach values of 100% and 39.3% (Vélez-Sampedro et al 2022). Focus studies on small fish farming systems provide important data on the dynamics of parasite transmission, useful for the design of control programs.…”

“…Thirty-two yellow mojarras with a body size range of 15-18 cm were analyzed. The average processing time spent on each host was 2.5 h. From the inspection of the hosts, a total of 242 parasites assigned to six types of helminths were collected, five belonging to the class Trematoda (Platyhelminthes) including Austrodiplostomum sp., Clinostomum sp., Oligogonotylus andinus (Vélez-Sampedro et al 2022), and two morphospecies of the genus Posthodiplostomum in addition to an Acanthocephala of the class Eoacanthocephala (Acanthocephala): Neoechinorhynchus sp. (Table 1).…”

“…Adult forms of Oligogonotylus andinus (Figure 3h) recorded a prevalence of 18.8 % and the lowest average abundance in the study. This is a genus exclusive to cichlids and contains three species, O. manteri (Watson, 1976) and O. mayae (Razo-Mendivil et al 2008) in Central America (Razo-Mendivil et al 2008) and O. andinus (Vélez-Sampedro et al 2022) described in the blue mojarra (Andinoacara latifrons) in a fish farm of peasant economy in the Antioquia department. The life cycle of O. andinus is complex and involves cochliopid, poeciliid and cichlid micromollusks (Vélez-Sampedro et al 2022).…”

“…This is a genus exclusive to cichlids and contains three species, O. manteri (Watson, 1976) and O. mayae (Razo-Mendivil et al 2008) in Central America (Razo-Mendivil et al 2008) and O. andinus (Vélez-Sampedro et al 2022) described in the blue mojarra (Andinoacara latifrons) in a fish farm of peasant economy in the Antioquia department. The life cycle of O. andinus is complex and involves cochliopid, poeciliid and cichlid micromollusks (Vélez-Sampedro et al 2022). This research reports for the second time a population of O. andinus in Colombia, extending its distribution range from the Cauca River basin in the Andean region to the coastal region of the Colombian Caribbean.…”

“…As a definitive host it harbors the trematode Oligogonotylus andinus and the acanthocephalan Neoechinorhynchus sp. which use other fish and arthropods as intermediate hosts, respectively(Razo-Mendivil et al 2008;Lourenço et al 2018;Vélez-Sampedro et al 2022).…”