Digenea and Acanthocephala of Elasmobranch Fishes from the Southern Coast of Brazil

Vol. 96(8): 1095-1101, November 2001

Marcelo Knoff/⁺⁺, Sérgio Carmona de São Clemente*/⁺⁺, Roberto Magalhães Pinto/⁺⁺, Delir Corrêa Gomes/⁺/⁺⁺

Laboratório de Helmintos Parasitos de Vertebrados, Departamento de Helmintologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, Av. Brasil 4365, 21045-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil *Faculdade de Veterinária, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ, Brasil

New records for helminth species recovered from elasmobranch fishes in Brazil are established. Digenean and acanthocephalan parasites of elasmobranch fishes are reported from the southern coast of Brazil: Otodistomum veliporum (Creplin, 1837) Stafford, 1904 (Digenea: Azygiidae) in the stomach and spiral valve of Dipturus trachydermus and in the spiral valve of Squatina sp. Cystacanths and juveniles of the acanthocephalans Corynosoma australe Johnston, 1937 and Corynosoma sp., in the spiral valve of Squatina sp., Galeorhinus galeus and Hexanchus griseus and in the stomach of Squalus megalops; a juvenile of Gorgorhynchus sp., in the spiral valve of Sphyrna zygaena. Dipturus trachydermus and Squatina sp. are new host records for O. veliporum. Digeneans and acanthocephalans are reported for the first time parasitizing elasmobranch fishes in Brazil.

Key words: Digenea - Acanthocephala - new records - elasmobranch fishes - Brazil

Helminths recovered from Brazilian elasmobranch fishes have been previously reported by Rego et al. (1974), Rego (1977), Vicente et al. (1985), São Clemente and Gomes (1989a, b, 1992), São Clemente et al. (1991), Vicente and Pinto (1999) and Knoff et al. (2001). The present study reports a digenetic trematode and three acanthocephalans parasitizing elasmobranchs, that are referred as new host records for the helminth species.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To Dr Dely Noronha from the CHIOC, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, for the drawings of Corynosoma spp. To Dr Carolus Maria Vooren from the Universidade do Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, for the identification of fishes captured between the years 1984-1986, to Drs Alberto Ferreira Amorim and Carlos Arfelli from the Instituto de Pesca, Santos, State of São Paulo, for the identification of fishes captured between the years 1998-1999 and to the fishermen of the research ship Atlântico Sul of the Fundação Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, and also the fishing boats Icanhema VI and Kyiomã from Santos both for the help during capture of hosts.

REFERENCES

Figs. 1-4 | Figs. 5-15 | Table I | Table II

Financial support: CNPq Proc. no. 571491/97-9

⁺Corresponding author. Fax: +55-21-2598.4363. E-mail: dcgomes@gene.dbbm.fiocruz.br

⁺⁺CNPq research fellows, Proc. no. 143277/97-9, 302459/88-0, 300374/80-1 and 303124/89-0, respectively.

Received 9 February 2001

Accepted 3 August 2001