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International Journal of Zoological Research

Year: 2011 | Volume: 7 | Issue: 1 | Page No.: 19-33
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Authors

Anu Prasanna Vankara

G. Mani

C. Vijayalakshmi

Keywords

Research Article

Metazoan Parasite Infracommunities of the Freshwater Eel, Mastacembelus armatus Lacèpéde, 1800 from River Godavari, India

Anu Prasanna Vankara, G. Mani and C. Vijayalakshmi
Mastacembelus armatus is considered to be the delicacy of Southern India. Four hundred ninety four specimens of M. armatus collected from river Godavari from August 2005 to September 2007 were analyzed in order to study their metazoan parasite infracommunities. Twelve species of parasites were collected, 6 digenea, 2 cestodes, 1 monogenea, 1 copepoda, 1 nematoda and 1 acanthocephala; 78% of the fishes were parasitized by one or more than one metazoan, with a mean of 67 parasites/fish. The endoparasites represents 98.3% of the total parasites collected. The digenean Tetracotyle sp. and Circumonchobothrium shindei occupy the position of secondary species and the remaining were satellite species. Relationships between total body length of fish and both total parasite abundance and mean parasite species richness were observed. A new copepod species, Neoergasilus indicus is also encountered in the present investigation. The metazoan parasite infracommunities of M. armatus presented dominance of larval endoparasites; correlation of parasite burden, diversity and species richness with host total length; and no influence of host sex on parasitisation.
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