Key words: marine sciaenids -parasite community -diversity -Peruvian coastThe structure of the metazoan parasite community of fish, like that of other vertebrates and invertebrates, has recently attracted some attention. The first definition of a parasitic community was given by Cloutman (1975) who said that it is "the complex of individuals belonging to the different parasite species inhabiting a host". Studies focusing on the structure of parasite communities in marine fish, in terms of diversity, are scarce. There are few papers that consider the parasite community in fishes in terms of both endo and ectoparasites (Thoney 1991, Luque & Oliva 1993a, Campos & Carbonell 1994, Luque 1994, Molloy et al. 1995, Groenewold et al. 1996, Kennedy & Pojmanska 1996 and only one (Campos & Carbonell 1994) analyzed the community structure in terms of diversity. The goal of this paper is to develop an analysis of community structure in five sciaenids from the Peruvian coast. This is the first paper that analyzes five related host species in this manner.
MATERIALS AND METHODSNine hundred and sixty-eight sciaenids (237 Menticirrhus ophicephalus, 124 Paralonchurus peruanus, 249 Sciaena deliciosa, 50 Sciaena fasciata and 308 Stellifer minor) were examined + Corresponding