Abstract
Echinorhynchus salmonis is a common parasite of salmoniform and other fishes, occurring in fresh and brackish waters throughout the Holarctic. Presented here is the first analysis of the morphometric and meristic variation in a Palaearctic population of E. salmonis, collected from whitefish Coregonus lavaretus L. and smelt Osmerus eperlaus (L.) from the Bothnian Bay, northern Baltic Sea. Morphological data were compared with published descriptions of congeneric taxa. Nearctic populations of salmonid echinorhynchids considered by some to represent a distinct species, E. coregoni Linkins in Van Cleave, 1919, did not show any morphological divergence from Palaearctic populations, indicating that the name E. coregoni should be suppressed. Similarly, E. alpinus Linstow, 1901 has been considered to be a junior synonym of E. salmonis. However, E. alpinus should be regarded as a valid species, because it has a longer and more elongate body. The armature of the acanthocephalan proboscis typically displays radial symmetry. However, in E. salmonis the hooks on the dorsal surface of the proboscis are smaller than those on the ventral surface. Size differences between dorsal and ventral hooks are most pronounced at the base of the proboscis. The systematic and functional significance of radial asymmetry of proboscis hooks is discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aho, J.M., Mulvey, M., Jacobson, K.C. & Esch, G.W. (1992) Genetic differentiation among congeneric acanthocephalans in the yellow-bellied slider turtle. Journal of Parasitology, 78, 974–981.
Amin, O.A. & Redlin, M.J. (1980) The effect of host species on growth and variability of Echinorhynchus salmonis Müller, 1784 (Acanthocephala: Echinorhynchidae), with special reference to the status of the genus. Systematic Parasitology, 2, 9–20.
Amin, O.A. (1978) On the crustacean hosts of larval acanthocephalan and cestode parasites in southwestern Lake Michigan. Journal of Parasitology, 64, 842–845.
Amin, O.A. (1985) Classification. In: Crompton, D.W.T. & Nickol, B.B. (Eds) Biology of the Acanthocephala. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 27–72.
Brown, A.F., Chubb, J.C. & Veltkamp, C.J. (1986) A key to species of Acanthocephala parasitic in British freshwater fishes. Journal of Fish Biology, 28, 327–334.
Brownell, W.N. (1970) Comparison of Mysis relicta and Pontoporeia affinis as possible intermediate hosts for the acanthocephalan Echinorhynchus salmonis. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 27, 1864–1866.
Buron, I. de, Loubes, C. & Maurand, J. (1990) Infection and pathological alterations within the acanthocephalan Acanthocephaloides propinquus attributable to the microsporidian hyperparasite Microsporidium acanthocephali. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 109, 91–97.
De Giusti, D.I. & Budd, J. (1959) A three-year survey of the infection rate of Echinorhynchus coregoni and Cyathocephalus truncatus in their intermediate host Pontoporeia affinis from South Bay Mouth, Ontario. Journal of Parasitology, 45, 25.
Gee, R.J. (1986) A comparative morphological study of the Stutzzelle (support cell) in the phylum Acanthocephala. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 65, 660–668.
Giles, N. (1994) Freshwater fish of the British Isles. Shrewsbury: Swan Hill Press, 192 pp.
Golvan, Y.J. (1969) Systematique des Acanthocephales (Acanthocephala Rudolphi, 1801), l’ordre des Palaeacanthocephala Meyer, 1931, la superfamille des Echinorhynchidea (Cobbold, 1876) Golvan et Houin 1973. Memoires du Museum Nationale d’Histoire Naturelle, 47, 1–373.
Golvan, Y.J. (1994) Nomenclature of the Acanthocephala. Research and Reviews in Parasitology, 54, 135–205.
Grabda-Kazubska, B. & Ejsymont, L. (1969) Studies on the morphology, variability and systematic status of Echinorhynchus borealis Linstow, 1901 (Acanthocephala, Echinorhynchidae). Acta Parasitologica Polonica, 17, 65–87.
Huffman, D.G. & Bullock, W.L. (1975) Meristograms: graphical analysis of serial variation of proboscis hooks of Echinorhynchus (Acanthocephala). Systematic Zoology, 24, 333–345.
Huffman, D.G. & Nickol, B.B. (1978) Meristogram analysis of the acanthocephalan genus Pomphorhynchus in North America. Journal of Parasitology, 64, 851–859.
Kostylev, N.N. (1925) Notes regarding v. Linstow’s paper on the Acanthocephala of the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Science of U.R.S.S. Ezhegodnik Zoologicheskogo Muzeya, Akademii Nauk SSSR, Léningrad, 26, 1–9. (In Russian)
Kostylev, N.N. (1928) Acanthocephalen der Fische der Goktscha-Sees. Centralblatt für Bakteriologie,Parasitenkunde und Infektionskrankheiten, Abteilung I. Orig., 108, 146–150.
Liu Liqing, Wang Baodue & Yang Tao (1981) [Notes on the parasites of the carp of Qinhai Hu]. Journal of Fisheries of China, 5, 295–299. (In Chinese)
Measures, L.N. & Bossé, L. (1993) Gammarus lawrencianus (Amphipoda) as intermediate host of Echinorhynchus salmonis (Acanthocephala) in an estuarine environment. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 50, 2182–2184.
Müller, O.F. (1784) Zoologia Danica seu animalium Daniae et Norvegiae rariorum ac minus notorum descriptiones et historia. Havinae et Lipsiae, Vol. 2, 124 pp.
Muzzall, P.M. (1995) Parasites of Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus spp., from the Great Lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research, 21, 248–256.
Petrochenko, V.I. (1956) Acanthocephala of domestic and wild animals. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, Vol. I, 435 pp. (In Russian).
Shostak, A.W., Dick, T.A., Szalai, A.J. & Bernier, L.M.J. (1986) Morphological variability in Echinorhynchus gadi, E. leidyi, and E. salmonis (Acanthocephala: Echinorhynchidae) from fishes in Northern Canadian waters. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 64, 985–995.
Shul’man, S.S. (1954) Specificity of fish parasites. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 33, 14–35. (In Russian).
Tedla, S & Fernando, C.H. (1969) Some remarks on the ecology of Echinorhynchus salmonis Müller, 1784. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 48, 317–321.
Väinölä, R., Valtonen, E.T. & Gibson, D.I. (1994) Molecular systematics in the acanthocephalan genus Echinorhynchus (sensu lato) in northern Europe. Parasitology, 108, 105–114.
Väinölä, R. & Varvio, S.L. (1989) Molecular divergence and evolutionary relationships in Pontoporeia (Crustacea: Amphipoda). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 46, 1705–13.
Valtonen, E.T. (1980a) Metechinorhynchus salmonis (Müller, 1780) (Acanthocephala) as a parasite of whitefish in the Bothnian Bay. I. Seasonal relationships between infection and fish size. Acta Parasitologica Polonica, 27, 293–300.
Valtonen, E.T. (1980b) Metechinorhynchus salmonis (Müller, 1780) (Acanthocephala) as a parasite of whitefish in the Bothnian Bay. II. Sex ratio, body length and embryo development in relation to season and site in the intestine. Acta Parasitologica Polonica, 27, 301–307.
Valtonen, E.T. (1980c) Metechinorhynchus salmonis infection in the river-spawning whitefish of the Bothnian Bay. Journal of Fish Biology, 17, 1–8.
Valtonen, E.T. (1983) On the ecology of acanthocephalans in the north-eastern gulf of Bothnia: dispersion and frequency distributions. Abstracts of Papers. First International Symposium of Ichthyoparasitology, ‘Parasites and parasitic diseases of fish’, August 8–13, 1983, České Budějovice. Institute of Parasitology, Czech Academy of Sciences, p. 116.
Valtonen, E.T. & Crompton, D.W.T. (1990) Acanthocephala in fish from the Bothnian Bay, Finland. Journal of the Zoological Society of London, 220, 619–639.
Van Cleave, H.J. (1919) Acanthocephala from the Illinois River, with descriptions of new species and a synopsis of the family Neoechinorhynchidae. Bulletin of the Illinois Natural History Survey, 13, 225–257.
Van Cleave, H.J. (1920) Notes on the life cycle of two species of Acanthocephala from freshwater fishes. Journal of Parasitology, 6, 167–173.
Van Cleave, H.J. (1924) A critical study of the Acanthocephala described and identified by Joseph Leidy. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 76, 279–334.
Van Cleave, H.J. (1941) Hook patterns on the acanthocephalan proboscis. Quarterly Reviews in Biology, 16, 157–172.
Ward, H.L. (1937) Acanthocephala from the burbot ‘eel’ (Lota vulgaris), with special reference to the variation in the female Echinorhynchus coregoni. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 56, 355–363.
Wayland, M.T. (2002) Studies on the biosystematics of species of the genus Echinorhynchus (Acanthocephala). PhD Thesis, University of Stirling, 344 pp.
Yamaguti, S. (1963) Acanthocephala. Systema helminthum. Vol. 5. New York & London: Wiley Interscience, 423 pp.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wayland, M.T., Gibson, D.I. & Sommerville, C. Echinorhynchus salmonis Müller, 1784 (Acanthocephala: Echinorhynchidae) from the Bothnian Bay, Baltic Sea: morphological variability and radial asymmetry of proboscis hooks. Syst Parasitol 58, 149–158 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SYPA.0000029419.07989.1a
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SYPA.0000029419.07989.1a