| Description |
Cichlids represent one of the most diverse group of freshwater fish. Their distribution covers tropical and subtropical areas including Africa, South and Central America, Madagascar, and the parts of southern India and the Middle East. In South and Central America, cichlids be-long to one of the most dominant fish groups. Cichlids in this geographical area harbour 5 genera of gill monogeneans, all representatives of the Dactylogyridae: Sciadicleithrum, Gus-sevia, Tucunarella, Trinidactylus and Parasciadicleitrum. Sciadicleithrum and Gussevia are the most diverse representing 26 and 17 currently known species, respectively. In this study, we investigated the diversity and phylogeny of monogenean fauna in selected cichlid species representing different lineages. A total of 32 cichlid specimens were collected from Amazon River (Iquitos, Peru) and examined for the presence of monogenean parasites. The following cichlid species were investigated: Cichla monoculus (Cichlini), Satanoperca sp. and Bioto-doma cupido (both Geophagini), Astronotus ocellatus (Astronotini), Cichlasoma amazonarum (Cichlasomatini), Pterophyllum scalare, Hypselecara coryphaenoides (both Heroini). All cichlid species were parasitized by monogeneans. Within this study, monogenean communi-ties of 4 cichlid species were analyzed. The species, G. astronoti and G. asota were identified on A. ocellatus. Only G. spiralocirra was identified on P. scalare. A total of 6 monogenean species were identified on C. ocellaris including G. tucunarense, G. arilla, G. undulata, Gus-sevia sp. 1, Sciadicleithrum umbilicum and S. ergensi. Finally, 7 monogenean species includ-ing G. disparoides, Gussevia sp. 2, Gussevia sp. 3, Sciadicleithrum variabilum, Sciadi-cleithrum sp. 1 and Trinidactylus sp. were identified on C. amazonarum. The majority of these monogenean species exhibited strict host specificity i.e. monogenean species is present on a single cichlid species. Phylogenetic reconstruction was performed using concatenated data on partial 28S rDNA, partial 18S rDNA and complete ITS1 to resolve the phylogenetic relationships between monogeneans exhibiting strict host specificity.
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