Hostname: page-component-6d856f89d9-mhpxw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T06:33:08.892Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Richness and diversity of macroparasite communities in tropical eels Anguilla reinhardtii in Queensland, Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

C. R. Kennedy
C. R. Kennedy
Affiliation:
Department of Parasitology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The prediction that richness and diversity of helminth communities would be greater in tropical fish was tested by analysing total and intestinal helminth communities in samples of Anguilla reinhardtii taken from 10 localities in tropical and semi-tropical freshwaters in Queensland, Australia. Comparison of findings with those from A. anguilla in the UK revealed that regional species richness was higher in Queensland and that helminth communities harboured a suite of common species, virtually all eel specialists, that were responsible for the observed higher levels of similarity between component communities. All measures of community richness and diversity adopted indicated that the poorest helminth communities in A. reinhardtii were comparable with the richest ones reported from the northern temperate A. anguilla. The richest communities in A. reinhardtii were more diverse than those reported from any other species of fish, whether marine or freshwater, to date, and were comparable with the communities found in some species of aquatic birds. Both tropical conditions and age and endemism of the host, i.e. the time hypothesis, were considered as explanations for this richness but neither could be favoured. A cautious approach to generalizations based on data from temperate regions only is advocated, and the need for more studies on tropical parasite communities is strongly emphasized.

Keywords

Anguilla reinhardtiitropicshelminth communitiescommunity diversityAustralian parasites
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 111 , Issue 2 , August 1995 , pp. 233 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aho, J. M., Bush, A. O. & Wolf, R. W. ( 1991). Helminth parasites of bowfin (Amia calva) from South Carolina. Journal of the Helminthological Society of Washington 58, 171–5.Google Scholar
Bates, R. M. & Kennedy, C. R. (1990). Interactions between the acanthocephalans Pomphorhynchus laevis and Ancanthocephalus anguillae in rainbow trout: testing an exclusion hypothesis. Parasitology 100, 435–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brooks, D. R. & McLennan, D. A. (1993). Parascript. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Bush, A. O., Aho, J. M. & Kennedy, C. R. (1990). Ecological versus phylogenetic determinants of helminth parasite community richness. Evolutionary Ecology 4, 1–20.Google Scholar
Bychowskii, B. E., Gusev, A. V. & Nagibina, L. F. (1965). (New species of Monogenea: Tetraonchoididae Bychowsky, 1951) (In Russian). Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta AN SSSR 35, 140–61.Google Scholar
Chappell, L. H. (1969). Competitive exclusion between two intestinal parasites of the three spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus L. Journal of Parasitology 55, 775–8.Google Scholar
Cone, D. K., Marcogliese, D. J. & Watt, W. D. (1993). Metazoan parasite communities of yellow eels (Anguilla rostrata) in acidic and limed rivers of Nova Scotia. Canadian Journal of Zoology 71, 177–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crane, J. S. & Eversole, A. G. (1989). Helminth parasites of American eels from brackish water. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 35, 355–64.Google Scholar
Cribb, T. H. (1986). The life cycle and morphology of Stemmatostoma pearsoni, gen. et sp. nov., with notes on the morphology of Telogaster opisthorchis MacFarlane (Digenea: Cryptogonimidae). Australian Journal of Zoology 34, 297–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cribb, T. H. (1987 a). Studies on gorgoderid digeneans from Australian and Asia freshwater fishes. Journal of Natural History 21, 1129–53.Google Scholar
Cribb, T. H. (1987 b). A new species of Phyllodistomum (Digenea: Gorgoderidae) from Australian and New Zealand freshwater fishes with notes on the taxonomy of Phyllodistomum Braun, 1899. Journal of Natural History 21, 1525–38.Google Scholar
Cribb, T. H. (1988). Two new digenetic trematodes from Australian freshwater fishes with notes on previously described species. Journal of Natural History 22, 27–43.Google Scholar
Esch, G. W., Bush, A. O. & Aho, J. M. (1990). Parasite Communities: Patterns and Processes. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Esch, G. W., Kennedy, C. R., Bush, A. O. & Aho, J. M. (1988). Patterns in helminth communities in freshwater fish in Great Britain: alternative strategies for colonisation. Parasitology 96, 519–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guégan, J.-F. & Kennedy, C. R. (1993). Maximum local helminth parasite community richness in British freshwater fish: a test of the colonisation time hypothesis. Parasitology 106, 91–100.Google Scholar
Hanski, I. (1982). Dynamics of regional distribution: the core and satellite species hypothesis. Oikos 38, 210–21.Google Scholar
Hine, P. M. (1978). Distribution of some parasites of freshwater eels in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 12, 179–87.Google Scholar
Hine, P. M. (1980 a). Distribution of helminths in the digestive tracts of New Zealand freshwater eels. 1. Distribution of digeneans. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 14, 329–38.Google Scholar
Hine, P. M. (1980 b). Distribution of helminths in the digestive tracts of New Zealand freshwater eels. 2. Distribution of nematodes. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 14, 339–47.Google Scholar
Hine, P. M. & Francis, R. I. C. C. (1980). Distribution of helminths in the digestive tracts of New Zealand freshwater eels. 3. Interspecific associations and conclusions. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 14, 349–56.Google Scholar
Holmes, J. C. & Price, P. W. (1986). Communities of parasites. In Community Ecology: Pattern and Processes (ed. Kikkawa, J. & Anderson, D. J.), pp. 187–213. Oxford: Blackweli Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Johnston, T. H. & Mawson, P. (1940). Some nematodes parasitic in Australian freshwater fish. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 64, 340–52.Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1974). A checklist of British and Irish freshwater fish parasites with notes on their distribution. Journal of Fish Biology 6, 613–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1990). Helminth communities in freshwater fish: structured communities or stochastic assemblages? In Parasite Communities: Patterns and Processes (ed. Esch, G. W., Bush, A. O. & Aho, J. M.), pp. 130–156. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1993 a). Introductions, spread and colonisation of new localities by fish helminth and crustacean parasites in the British Isles: a perspective and appraisal. Journal of Fish Biology 43, 287–301.Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1993 b). The dynamics of intestinal helminth communities in eels Anguilla anguilla in a small stream: long-term changes in richness and structure. Parasitology 107, 71–8.Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. & Bush, A. O. (1994). The relationship between pattern and scale in parasite communities: a stranger in a strange land. Parasitology 109, 187–96.Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. R., Bush, A. O. & Aho, J. M. (1986). Patterns in helminth communities: why are birds and fish different? Parasitology 93, 205–15.Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. & Moriarty, C. (1987). Co-existence of congeneric species of Acanthocephala: Acanthocephalus lucii and A. anguillae in eels, Anguilla anguilla in Ireland. Parasitology 95, 301–10.Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. & Williams, H. H. (1989). Helminth parasite community diversity in a marine fish, Raja batis. Journal of Fish Biology 34, 971–2.Google Scholar
Lotz, J. M. & Font, W. F. (1985). Structure of enteric helminth communities in two populations of Eptesicus fuscus (Chiroptera). Canadian Journal of Zoology 63, 2969–78.Google Scholar
Lotz, J. M. & Font, W. F. (1991). The role of positive and negative interspecific associations in the organisation of communities of intestinal helminths of bats. Parasitology 103, 127–38.Google Scholar
Magurran, A. E. (1988). Ecological Diversity and its Measurement. London: Croom Helm Ltd.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manter, H. W. (1955). The zoogeography of trematodes of marine fishes. Experimental Parasitology 4, 62–86.Google Scholar
Manter, H. W. (1966). Parasites of fishes as biological indicators of recent and ancient conditions. In Host–Parasite Relationships (ed. McCauley, J. E.), pp. 59–71. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press.Google Scholar
Marcogliese, D. J. & Cone, D. K. (1993). What Metazoan parasites tell us about the evolution of American and European eels. Evolution 47, 1632–5.Google Scholar
Margolis, L., Esch, G. W., Holmes, J. C., Kuris, A. M. & Schad, G. A. (1982). The use of ecological terms in parasitology (Report of an ad hoc committee of the American Society of Parasitologists). Journal of Parasitology 68, 131–3.Google Scholar
May, R. M. (1973). Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
May, R. M. (1975). Patterns of species abundance and diversity. In Ecology and Evolution of Communities (eds. Cody, M. L. & Diamond, J. M.), pp. 81–120. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Moravec, F. & Rohde, K. (1992). Three species of nematodes from the superfamily Dracunculoidea from Australian fishes. Acta Societa Zoologia Bohemoslavakia 56, 187–95.Google Scholar
Pielou, E. C. (1974). Population and Community Ecology. New York: Gordon and Breach.Google Scholar
Rid, L. A. (1973). Helminth parasites of the long-finned eel, Anguilla dieffenbachii, and the short-finned eel, A. australis. Mauri Ora 1, 99–106.Google Scholar
Rodhe, K. (1992). Latitudinal gradients in species diversity: the search for the primary cause. Oikos 65, 514–27.Google Scholar
Sousa, W. P. (1994). Patterns and processes in communities of helminth parasites. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9, 52–7.Google Scholar
Stock, T. M. & Holmes, J. C. (1987). Host specificity and exchange of intestinal helminths among four species of grebes (Podicipedidae). Canadian Journal of Zoology 65, 669–76.Google Scholar
Tesch, F.-W. (1977). The Eel. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Watson, R. A. (1984). The life cycle and morphology of Tetracerasta blepta gen. et sp. nov., and Stegodexamene callista, sp. nov (Trematoda: Lepocreadiidae) from the long-finned eel, Anguilla reinhardtii Steindachner. Australian Journal of Zoology 32, 177–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar