Abstract
Purpose
To follow the development of the microsporidian Spraguea americanus within the nervous tissue of Lophius. An attempt to determine when and how the infection begins.
Methods
Acquiring different age groups of Lophius and recovering the infected sites, particularly the supramedullary neuron fibers and preparing them for microscopy.
Results
The youngest juvenile Lophius recovered were 140 mm long with established infections. These infections consisted of meronts and sporoblasts but no spores. The evidence indicates these infections began a month or so earlier.
Conclusions
Early stages of S. americanus development occur only in juvenile Lophius and not present in older fish. The prediction is infections of all Spraguea species begin early in the life of benthic juvenile Lophius. The high incidence of infection among these fish is an indicator that the location where the infection begins is likely rich in infective spores.
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taken from 500 mm fish. The parasite colonies characteristically have a rich web of IFs. The blowup would indicate the filaments attached to the surface of the spores. a, b Bars = 1 µm
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Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Richard Weissenberg—he got me started on this back in 1970; he did his doctorate on this parasite in anglerfish in 1907. He received his training from Oscar Hertwig who figured out how fertilization works in 1875; and guess what—he got his training with Ernest Haeckel who as everybody knows read ‘Origin of the Species’ when it first came out; he rushed over to Down and had a nice visit with Darwin and Huxley; to Bill Trager who introduced me to Woods Hole—and, to Horace Stunkard who did life cycles in Woods Hole till he was 100.
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Weidner, E. The Spraguea Parasitism in Anglerfishes of the Genus Lophius. Acta Parasit. 67, 943–946 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-022-00546-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-022-00546-0