Abstract
During a parasitological survey of Leucoraja erinacea, L. ocellata, Malacoraja senta and Amblyraja radiata from Passamaquoddy Bay and waters surrounding the West Isles of the Bay of Fundy, NB, Canada, seven species of cestodes were recovered. Examination of these skates revealed the presence of two distinct species of Pseudanthobothrium Baer, 1956: one was retrieved from M. senta and A. radiata, identified as P. hanseni Baer, 1956 and redescribed herein; the other was retrieved from L. erinacea and L. ocellata and differs from previously described species. The new species is described herein as P. purtoni n. sp. on the basis of the degree of apolysis, the maximum width of the strobila, the length of the cirrus-sac and the number of testes. Additionally, the distinctiveness of both species of Pseudanthobothrium is supported by the characterisation of a 643 base-pair nuclear marker, which includes most of the D2 variable region of the large subunit ribosomal DNA (LSU). The recovery of two different tetraphyllidean species, each from two different host species, challenges the oioxeny (strict host-specificity) of echeneibothriine cestodes and can be explained, at least in part, by the similarities in diet and substrate preference within each host pair.
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Acknowledgements
Special thanks are due to J. N. Caira, H. H. Williams and C. P. Keeling for encouraging the senior author to pursue a career in parasitology and to work on tetraphyllidean worms, and also for their hospitality and advice. The authors are grateful to staff of the HMSC: F. Purton and D. Parker for their technical assistance and availability; T. Hurley and M. Burgess for assisting with collection of specimens; and E. Carter who went beyond the call of duty as Captain of the R/V ‘W. B. Scott’. The help of D. Loveless and W. Minor Mate/Engineer and Captain of the CCGS ‘Pandalus III’, respectively, in collecting by Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) personnel, is also gratefully acknowledged. We thank S. Belfry of the Electron Microscopy Unit at the University of New Brunswick, who was instrumental in teaching the senior author the essentials of scanning electron microscopy and assisted in the preparation of the material. The senior author thanks C. E. Lane and L. LeGall as well as T. Moore and M. Surette for their technical assistance and advice regarding molecular methodologies. We are most grateful to A. R. Breton and two anonymous and diligent reviewers for providing useful comments on this manuscript. The Institute of Parasitology of McGill University, the HMSC and the Department of Biology of the University of New Brunswick (UNB) provided lab space and other research facilities. The following financial assistance is gratefully acknowledged: Graduate Teaching and Research Assistantships at UNB, two McGill R. C. Frazee Research Scholarships at HMSC, one UNB R. C. Frazee Research Scholarship at HMSC, a W. B. Scott Graduate Research Scholarship in Ichthyology, and two HMSC Summer Student Assistantships to the senior author. In addition, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) provided assistance through operating/discovery grants to Drs G. W. Saunders, M. E. Scott and M. D. B. Burt; a Steacie Fellowship to G. W. Saunders; and a Major Facilities Access Grant to HMSC. The Canada Research Chairs Program (G. W. Saunders) also provided financial assistance.
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Randhawa, H.S., Saunders, G.W., Scott, M.E. et al. Redescription of Pseudanthobothrium hanseni Baer, 1956 and description of P. purtoni n. sp. (Cestoda: Tetraphyllidea) from different pairs of rajid skate hosts, with comments on the host-specificity of the genus in the northwest Atlantic. Syst Parasitol 70, 41–60 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-007-9122-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-007-9122-6