Community ecology of the metazoan parasites of snoek Thyrsites atun (Euphrasen, 1791) (Perciformes: Gempylidae) off South Africa

The parasite assemblage of snoek Thyrsites atun, a commercially important fish in the Benguela system, was examined over a one-year period. In all, 16 parasite taxa including eight new host records (Bolbosoma vasculosum, Caligus coryphaenae, Caligus dakari, Corynosoma australe, Hatschekia conifera,...

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Published in:African journal of marine science Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 363 - 371
Main Authors: Nunkoo, MAI, Reed, CC, Kerwath, SE
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Grahamstown Taylor & Francis 23.09.2016
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Bolbosoma vasculosum
Caligus
Caligus coryphaenae
Community ecology
Community structure
Corynosoma australe
Endoparasites
Feeding behavior
fish
food webs
Gempylidae
Hatschekia
helminths
host traits
larvae
Marine
Metazoa
Multivariate analysis
nestedness
new host records
Nothobomolochus
parasite infracommunity
Parasites
Perciformes
population structure
Pseudoterranova
Rhadinorhynchus cadenati
Seasonal variations
South Africa
species diversity
Species richness
Tentacularia coryphaenae
Thyrsites atun
South Africa
ISSN:1814-232X, 1814-2338, 1814-2338
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Summary:The parasite assemblage of snoek Thyrsites atun, a commercially important fish in the Benguela system, was examined over a one-year period. In all, 16 parasite taxa including eight new host records (Bolbosoma vasculosum, Caligus coryphaenae, Caligus dakari, Corynosoma australe, Hatschekia conifera, Nothobomolochus fradei, Rhadinorhynchus cadenati, Tentacularia coryphaenae) and four new locality records (B. vasculosum, C. dakari, Molicola uncinatus, Pseudoterranova sp.) were recovered from 210 specimens. The dominance of larval helminths in the component community suggests that T. atun occupies an intermediate position in the food web. The 'nestedness metric based on overlap and decreasing fill' (NODF) indicated that the parasite assemblage exhibited no nestedness (NODF = 73.3, p = 0.103). Generalised additive mixed modelling results indicated that host length is the main determinant of parasite species richness in T. atun. PERMANOVA and ANOSIM suggested that infracommunity structure varied little with respect to the sex, length, seasonality and capture region of the host. The stability and randomness in parasite acquisition, as indicated by the lack of nestedness of the parasite assemblage, can be ascribed to the opportunistic feeding behaviour and nomadic movement of T. atun in the southern Benguela. The homogeneity of the community structure of long-lived endoparasites suggests that a single T. atun stock occurs off South Africa.
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ISSN:1814-232X
1814-2338
1814-2338
DOI:10.2989/1814232X.2016.1216892