Premium
Metazoan parasites as biological indicators of population structure of Halobatrachus didactylus on the Portuguese coast
Author(s) -
Marques J. F.,
Santos M. J.,
Costa J. L.,
Costa M. J.,
Cabral H. N.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of applied ichthyology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1439-0426
pISSN - 0175-8659
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0426.2005.00655.x
Subject(s) - biology , toadfish , population , parasite hosting , portuguese , zoology , fish <actinopterygii> , estuary , lutjanidae , fishery , ecology , demography , sociology , linguistics , philosophy , world wide web , computer science
Summary A total of 366 Halobatrachus didactylus (Bloch & Schneider 1801) individuals were obtained between September and November 2000 from commercial fishing vessels at eight localities along the Portuguese coast and analysed for metazoan parasite infections. Three species of parasites were found: Hysterothylacium aduncum Rudolphi 1802; Progrillotia dasyatidis Beveridge et al. 2004, which constitutes a new host record for the Lusitanian toadfish; and Nerocila orbignyi Guérin‐Méneville 1829. Prevalence and mean abundance were determined for the total fish population in each sample. Significant differences in the number of parasitized fish among the samples analysed indicate differences in the H. didactylus populations along the Portuguese coast. The cluster analysis performed to prevalence data pointed out two major clusters: one composed of mainly estuarine samples and one that grouped samples from coastal areas; this is in agreement with the results obtained by morphological and genetic analysis performed for the same samples.