Anguillicola Species

The genus Anguillicola seems to be the only one within the family Anguillicoloidae (Laetsch et al. 2012), although Moravec (2006) described a second genus (Anguillicolides). The genus Anguillicola contains five species (A. crassus, A. papernai, A. globiceps, A. australiensis, and A. novaezelandiae) which all parasitize the eels found on the different continents. A. crassus is best investigated and Dangel et al. (2013) added recently experimental data for A. novaezelandiae. Infection of eels occurs by ingesting copepods containing the larvae 3. These larvae then migrate from the eel’s intestine into its swim bladder, where the adults develop via larvae 4. These adults had been developed within 3–5 months. Within excreted eggs the larvae 2 develops and as soon as copepods or other intermediate hosts feed such eggs, the larvae are set free in their bodies and molt into larva 3. This is the infectious stage, if these copepods or tiny fish (as transport hosts) are ingested by eels, where...