New records of philometrids (Nematoda: Philometridae) from marine fishes off Iraq, with the erection of two new species and the first description of the male of Philometroides eleutheronemae Moravec & Manoharan, 2013

Abstract

Based on light and scanning electron microscopical studies, the following five species of philometrid nematodes (Nematoda: Philometridae) are described from marine fishes from off Basrah, southern Iraq (Arabian Gulf): Philometra iraqiensis n. sp. (females) from the abdominal cavity and ovary of the Klunzinger's mullet Liza klunzingeri (Day) (Mugiliformes: Mugilidae), P. megalaspidis n. sp. (females) from the ovary of the torpedo scad Megalaspis cordyla (Linnaeus) (Perciformes: Carangidae), Philometra sp. 1 (females) from the ovary of the greater lizardfish Saurida tumbil (Bloch) (Aulopiformes: Synodontidae), Philometra sp. 2 (females) from the ovary of the bartail flathead Platycephalus indicus (Linnaeus) (Scorpaeniformes: Platycephalidae) and Philometroides eleutheronemae Moravec & Manoharan, 2013 (male and females) from the ovary of the fourfinger threadfin Eleutheronema tetradactylum (Shaw) (Perciformes: Polynemidae). The new species are characterised mainly by the body length, the length and structure of the oesophagus and caudal end and by the family of their fish hosts. The male and the gravid female of P. eleutheronemae are described for the first time; the finding of this species in Iraqi waters represents the first record of this nematode in the region of the Arabian (=Persian) Gulf.

Records of two gonad-infecting species of Philometra (Nematoda: Philometridae) from marine fishes off Iraq, including the description of Philometra parabrevicollis n. sp. from the bigeye snapper Lutjanus lutjanus Bloch (Pisces, Lutjanidae)

“…According to Moravec et al (Moravec et al 2016a , these nematodes are probably conspecific with those described by Moravec & Nagasawa ( 1989 ) from the gonads of P . indicus off Japan and misidentified as Philometra inimici Yamaguti, 1941.…”

“…indicus in Iraq were previously described as Philometra sp. 2 by Moravec et al ( 2016a ). Larger subgravid females of this not yet established species are described in this paper for the first time.…”

“…until conspecific males are obtained. Records of unidentified species of Philometra from different fish hosts reported by Parukhin ( 1976 ), El-Naffar et al ( 1992 ), Mohamed et al ( 2010 ), Hosseini et al ( 2013 ), Ali et al ( 2014 ) and Moravec et al ( 2016 a) indicate the presence of additional, not yet established philometrid species in marine fishes of the Arabian Gulf.…”

Contribution to the parasites and associated pathology of wild Serranidae from the Aegean Sea

“…and more than 40 species currently characterized as Nomen Dubium of whom acceptance is pending. It is worth noticing that nearly half of these 40 species were described in the last decade (Moravec and Manoharan, 2013;Moravec et al, 2016a;Moravec et al, 2016b) because of their impact in reproduction of some teleost fish (Selvakumar et al, 2015). Species of the genus Philometra require two hosts to complete their life cycle.…”

Phylum Nematoda: trends in species descriptions, the documentation of diversity, systematics, and the species concept

“…The tension between conservative approaches which only present taxonomic work that has a high degree of certainty as against presenting descriptions which are incomplete or uncertain (often because of a lack of material) was summarized recently by Payne (2015). Numerous examples of nematode taxa without full description and formal scientific name, but with an informal name and incomplete description testify to the issue in nematode taxonomy (eg Carta & Skantar 2014, Choudhury & Nadler 2016, Davies et al 2015, De Oliviera et al 2014, leduc 2014, Moravec & Barton 2015, Moravec & Jirku 2014a, Moravec & Manoharan 2014a, Moravec et al 2016, Raymond et al 2014, Smales 2015, Tchesunov et al 2015, Thorne et al 2017, yong et al 2015. There has also been a formal definition of what is a known species complex in the highlystudied model genus Pristionchus (yoshida et al 2018).…”