Two new species of Cichlidogyrus (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) parasitizing the gills of African cichlid fishes (Perciformes).
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | During surveys of helminth parasites of freshwater fishes from the Niokolo-Koba National park, Senegal, two new monogenean species of Cichlidogyrus were found on the gills of three species of African cichlids: C. dracolemma n. sp. from Hemichromis letourneuxi and C. nageus n. sp. from Sarotherodon galilaeus galilaeus and Tilapia guineensis. The new species are recognised on the basis of morphological differences in the male copulatory organs (MCOs) and apparent differences in the LSU, SSU rDNA and ITS1 sequence data. Cichlidogyrus dracolemma n. sp. closely resembles Cichlidogyrus bychowskii sensu Paperna, 1965 (probably a misidentification) from Hemichromis bimaculatus in having morphologically similar types of haptoral sclerites, MCO and vagina. These species are differentiated by C. dracolemma n. sp. possessing a MCO with a large kite-shaped termination of the accessory piece. The tree topologies resulting from the phylogenetic analysis based on molecular data showed the strongly supported clade including C. dracolemma n. sp. and Cichlidogyrus longicirrus Paperna, 1965 collected from Hemichromis fasciatus. Cichlidogyrus nageus n. sp. appears to be morphologically and molecularly closely related to Cichlidogyrus acerbus Dossou, 1982 obtained from S. galilaeus galilaeus. However, C. nageus n. sp. is morphologically readily separated from all known congeners by the characteristic pestle shaped termination of median subunit of the accessory piece. |
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