Parasites and epibionts of grapsid crabs in the Bahía Blanca estuary, Argentina

ALDA P.; LA SALA L.; MARCOTEGUI P.; MARTORELLI S.R.

CRUSTACEANA

BRILL ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS

Año: 2011 vol. 84 p. 559 - 571

0011-216X

A variety of epibionts and parasites was recovered from two species of grapsid crabs, Cyrtograpsus angulatus and Neohelice granulata, from the Bahía Blanca estuary, Argentina. Among those epibionts, we found a filamentous bacterium, a protozoan, Epistylis sp., and the copepod, Neocancrincola platensis in the gills, and two barnacles, Balanus amphitrite and B. glandula, as well as the bryozoan, Conopeum reticulum on the caparace. Among endoparasites, we recovered the acanthocephalan Profilicollis chasmagnathi from the hindgut, two nematodes from the subfamily Acuariinae and one, Ascarophis sp., from the haemocoel, and an encysted cyclophyllidean cestode from the gut wall. Among microphallid digeneans, we found four metacercariae: Maritrema bonaerensisi in the gills, muscle, haemocoel, and gonads, Maritrema orensensis in the gills, Levinseniella cruzi in the gonads, and Odhneria sp. in muscle tissue. This is the first report of these epibionts and digeneans in these grapsid crabs, except for N. platensis and M. bonaerensis. We report for the first time larval cestodes parasitizing C. angulatus. In addition, this paper also presents novel information regarding the possible sites of infection of M. bonaerensis.