First adult cyclophyllidean tapeworm (Cestoda) from teleost fishes: host switching beyond tetrapods in Africa

0540540 - BC 2021 RIV AU eng J - Journal Article
Scholz, Tomáš - Tavakol, S. - Luus-Powell, W.J.
First adult cyclophyllidean tapeworm (Cestoda) from teleost fishes: host switching beyond tetrapods in Africa.
International Journal for Parasitology. Roč. 50, č. 8 (2020), s. 561-568. ISSN 0020-7519. E-ISSN 1879-0135
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GBP505/12/G112; GA ČR(CZ) GX19-28399X
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : Tapeworms * Cyclophyllidea * Dilepididae * Host switch * Elephantfishes * Africa * Systematics
OECD category: Zoology
Impact factor: 3.981, year: 2020
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0020751920300977?via%3Dihub

Tapeworms (Cestoda) of the order Cyclophyllidea include over 3,000 species of intestinal parasites of tetrapods, especially birds and mammals including humans. However, adults of cyclophyllideans have never been found in bony fishes, even though hundreds of thousands of these hosts have been examined for parasites globally over more than 250 years. In the present paper, we report on a unique example of host switching of a tapeworm from birds to teleost fish in Africa. A new genus, Ichthyolepis (Cyclophyllidea: Dilepididae), is erected to accommodate Ichthyolepis africana n. sp., which is the first cyclophyllidean tapeworm that sexually matures in teleost fishes. The new species parasitises several freshwater elephantfishes (Mormyriformes: Mormyridae) including Marcusenius macrolepidotus (type host) in South Africa, Marcusenius senegalensis in Senegal, Mormyrus caschive, M. niloticus and Pollimyrus isodori in the Sudan, and Mormyrus kannume in Egypt. Ichthyolepis n. gen. is typified by a large musculo-glandular apical apparatus with rostellar pouch and a rostellum armed with robust hooks similar in size, but different in shape, deep, sandglass-shaped genital atrium, vaginal atrium and cirrus armed with tiny spines, thick-walled, subspherical cirrus sac, large, lobulated ovary occupying a large part of the median pre-equatorial field of mature proglottids, numerous testes filling almost entirely the postequatorial median field of proglottids, long and narrow, sleeve-like lateral uterine diverticula, and spindle-shaped eggs. Molecular phylogenetics considers Ichthyolepis as a member of the lineage consisting of dilepidids from swifts (Apodidae) in Africa. All fish hosts of the new tapeworm are bottom feeders, live in muddy bio-topes and are insectivorous, which indicates that its intermediate hosts may be insect larvae. (C) 2020 Australian Society for Parasitology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0318167