Four Species of Digeneans (Trematoda, Opecoelidae) of the Gilthead Seabream Sparus aurata (Teleostei, Sparidae) off the Algerian Coast in the Mediterranean Sea

• Дата: 2024
• Автори: Zedam, F-Z., Boukadoum , A., Tazerouti, F.
• Формат: Стаття
• Мова: English
• Опубліковано: Publishing House "Akademperiodyka" of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine 2024
• Онлайн доступ: https://ojs.akademperiodyka.org.ua/index.php/Zoodiversity/article/view/573
• Назва журналу: Zoodiversity

A study was conducted between May 2020 and April 2022, in an attempt to investigate the diversity of digeneans infecting the digestive tract of the gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata (Linnaeus, 1758) (Sparidae) off the Algerian coast. Four species belonging to the family Opecoelidae Ozaki, 1925 were collected: Macvicaria obovata (Molin, 1859) Bartoli, Bray & Gibson, 1989; Macvicaria maillardi Bartoli, Bray & Gibson, 1989; Macvicaria maamouriae Antar, Georgieva, Gargouri & Kostadinova, 2015 and Allopodocotyle pedicellata (Stossich, 1887) Pritchard, 1966. Algeria is a new geographical record for M. obovata and A. pedicellata, whereas M. maillardi has already been reported on the Algerian coast, but not from its type host S. aurata. In this paper, we provide a redescription of these species based on newly collected specimens which were identified using only morphological features such as the distribution of vitelline follicles and, uterus, the position and shape of the cirrus-sac, and the presence or absence of the metraterm. We also highlighted the morphometric variations between our specimens and those described. We also highlighted the intraspecific morphometric variation in comparison with published data. The epidemiological indices show that M. obovata has the highest values in both prevalence and abundance (33.3 % and 2.2 %, respectively).