Morphological and molecular characterization of larval Echinocephalus sp

Larvae of an unidentified Echinocephalus species were obtained from two fish species: red porgy or common seabream (Pagrus pagrus) and greater lizard fish (Saurida undosquamis) from the Red Sea. The prevalence of Echinocephalus sp. larvae in P. pagrus was 4.92% and 4.98% in S. undosquamis. The lengt...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Parasitology research (1987) 2023-10, Vol.122 (10), p.2405
Main Authors: Abd El-Ghany, Amany M, Nada, Mohamed S. M, Nadler, Steven A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Fishes
Phylogeny
Snakes
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Larvae of an unidentified Echinocephalus species were obtained from two fish species: red porgy or common seabream (Pagrus pagrus) and greater lizard fish (Saurida undosquamis) from the Red Sea. The prevalence of Echinocephalus sp. larvae in P. pagrus was 4.92% and 4.98% in S. undosquamis. The length, width, cephalic bulb, and spine shape and pattern of the larvae resembled Echinocephalus overstreeti. SSU gene sequences of larvae from P. pagrus and S. undosquamis were identical. Comparison of the SSU sequence to those available in GenBank showed that the larvae from P. pagrus and S. undosquamis are diagnosably distinct. Based on sequence similarity and published phylogenetic analysis, these larvae are most similar to an unknown species of Echinocephalus from an Australian sea snake (Hydrophis peronii). Despite morphological similarities of the Red Sea larvae to E. overstreeti, the SSU sequence differences show that they are not the same species.
ISSN:0932-0113
DOI:10.1007/s00436-023-07942-z