Abstract
Selachohemecus benzi Bullard & Overstreet n. sp. infects the heart and kidney of the blacktip shark Carcharhinus limbatus in the northern Gulf of Mexico off Florida and Mississippi, USA. Specimens of S.␣olsoni Short, 1954, the only congener and only other named blood fluke reported from a chondrichthyan in the Gulf of Mexico, were collected from the heart of the Atlantic sharpnose shark Rhizoprionodon terraenovae from two new localities, Apalachicola Bay, Florida, and Mississippi Sound, Mississippi, USA. The new species differs from S. olsoni by having a larger body (1.4–3.8 mm long), robust tegumental body spines numbering 51–63 along each lateral body margin, a testis extending from the posterior caeca to the ovary, and a medial ovary with lobes. We amend the diagnosis of Selachohemecus Short, 1954 to accommodate it and provide a diagnostic key for all named chondrichthyan blood flukes.
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Acknowledgements
We thank R. Palmer (Gulf Coast Research Laboratory [GCRL], The University of Southern Mississippi [USM]) for helping collect the initial specimens of S. benzi in 1995; J. Braswell (INVISTA Incorporated, Dalton Carpet Technology Center, Dalton, Georgia) for help with the scanning electron microscopy; C. Schloss, J.␣Shaw and M. Williams (The Gunter Library, GCRL, USM) for bibliographic assistance; J.␣Brusher, E.␣Cortes and D. Bethea (Shark Population Assessment Group, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], National Marine Fisheries Service [NMFS], Panama City, Florida) for helping collect sharks in Apalachicola Bay, Florida, and adjacent waters; R. Hueter, M. Henry and R. Pierce (Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida) for facilitating collections of sharks from Tampa Bay, Florida; J.␣Petersen, J.␣Steckler, L. Galle and N. Jordan (GCRL) for helping collect sharks off Mississippi; M. Grace, W. Ingram and the officers and crew of the R/V Gordon Gunter and R/V Oregon II (NOAA, NMFS, Pascagoula, Mississippi) for allowing SAB to examine their catch; and G. Benz for helping examine sharks aboard the R/V Gordon Gunter. Grants from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Gulf of Mexico Program (Award No. MX994732-95-0), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (National Marine Fisheries Service Award NA06FL0501), and a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF Award No. 0508856) supported this study.
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Bullard, S.A., Overstreet, R.M. & Carlson, J.K. Selachohemecus benzi n. sp. (Digenea: Sanguinicolidae) from the blacktip shark Carcharhinus limbatus (Carcharhinidae) in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Syst Parasitol 63, 141–152 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-005-9010-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-005-9010-x