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New host records for Haemogregarina bigemina from the coast of southern Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1999

N.J. Smit
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Entomology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
A.J. Davies
Affiliation:
School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kingston University, Kingston, Surrey, KT1 2EE

Abstract

One hundred and fifty intertidal fishes were captured at Jeffreys Bay in July 1996 and February 1997, and at De Hoop Nature Reserve in April 1997, South Africa. Caffrogobius caffer, Chorisochismus dentex, Clinus superciliosus, and Clinus cottoides were all parasitised by haematophagous larvae of the isopod, Gnathia africana, and between 22 and 81% of fishes were infested with 1 to 76 larvae each. Of those fishes examined for blood parasites, 35/46 (76.1%) had an intraerythrocytic haemogregarine identified as Haemogregarina (sensu lato) bigemina, but only Clinus superciliosus and Clinus cottoides were infected. Gamonts of the haemogregarine, some undergoing syzygy, were also present in 50% of stained batches of the anterior hindgut contents of G. africana larvae which had fed on Clinus superciliosus, but were absent from larvae taken from Clinus cottoides and Chorisochismus dentex. This study provides new host records for H. bigemina and further evidence that gnathiid isopods play a role in the transmission of the haemogregarine.

Type
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Copyright
© 1999 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

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