Title: Dactylogyrids (Monogenea) parasitizing African tetras (Characiformes: Alestidae) in Zimbabwe
Abstract: The Alestidae, often called “African tetras”, is the most
speciose (with about 120 species) family of characiform fishes
in Africa. These fishes are known to be parasitized by
monogeneans representing 3 genera of the Dactylogyridae:
Annulotrema, Characidotrema and Afrocleidodiscus. During
several field campaigns in Senegal (2004 – 2008), Kenya (2008 -
2009), Sudan (2008) and Zimbabwe (2011 – 2012), a total of 15
species of the Alestidae have been examined for monogeneans and
more than 30 monogenean species (3 genera) of the
Dactylogyridae were found. Our current research dealing with
the taxonomic evaluation of monogeneans collected from 2
species (2 genera, i.e. Hydrocynus and Brycinus) of the
Alestidae from the Kariba Lake and Zambezi River in Zimbabwe
revealed the presence of 6 species of Annulotrema and 1 species
of Afrocleidodiscus. Three species of them are probably new for
science. Morphological analysis of sclerotized structures of
the “Kenya” and “Zimbabwe” species of Annulotrema collected by
us suggests that there are at least 3 groups within the
dactylogyrids parasitizing these fishes, with regard to the
basic structure of the male copulatory organ (MCO). The first
group includes 5 species with MCOs composed of an arcuate
copulatory tube articulated to an accessory piece with lightly
sclerotized proximal part; the second group (including 2
species) is characterized by MCO with sock-like base and
non-articulated accessory piece with richly intertwined distal
part; the third group consists of 3 species with an oval base
of the copulatory tube and articulated accessory piece with
sickle shaped distal part.
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-06-05
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot