Parasitology, Harold W. Manter Laboratory of
Date of this Version
4-1975
Abstract
Thynnascaris reliquens sp. n. is described from the type host, the sheepshead, Archosargus probatocephalus (Walbaum), and other fishes of the northern Gulf of Mexico and southern Florida, including the Gulf toadfish, Opsanus beta (Goode and Bean); the spiny boxfish, Chilomycterus schoepfi (Walbaum); the slippery dick, Halichoeres bivittatus (Bloch); and the Atlantic croaker, Micropogon undulatus (Linnaeus). Its salient characters are: length up to approximately 12.5 cm; lips broad, with pedunculate pulp and equatorially constricted flanges; esophagus 8 to 12% and spicules 3 to 6% of body length; preanal and postanal papillae up to 33 and 6 pairs, respectively. In the type host, some adults attained a considerably greater size than in other hosts, and their labial morphology changed as the maximum length was approached. Thynnascaris habena is redescribed from the oyster toadfish, Opsanus tau (Linnaeus), its type host, on the basis of examination of specimens collected from Massachusetts, Virginia, and Georgia. Thynnascaris melichthysi (Olsen, 1952) and T. ogcocephali (Olsen, 1952) are transferred from the genus Contracaecum as new combinations.
Comments
Published in the Journal of Parasitology (April 1975) 61(2): 330-336. Copyright 1975, the American Society of Parasitologists.