The parasite community of Percophis brasiliensis in the southwest Atlantic: relationships with habitat and diet

BRAICOVICH, P.E., MARCOGLIESE D.J., MCLAUGHLIN, D. J., TIMI, J.T.

Toronto, Canada

Simposio; The 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Zoologists; 2009

University of Toronto Scarborough

Parasitic assemblages of marine fish include larval stages of parasitic helminthes that use fish as second intermediate hosts. These parasites are transmitted to fish and from fish to definitive hosts via trophic interactions. This study examines the relationship between habitat and diet on the parasite fauna of the Brazilian flathead Percophis brasiliensis. Parasite species richness, Jaccard (qualitative similarity) and Sørensen (quantitative similarity) indices were calculated for component communities of Brazilian flathead and for seven other local fishes, considering only the common larval generalist parasites. Results showed that Brazilian flathead, striped weakfish (Cynoscion guatucupa) and Brazilian sandperch (Pingupes brasilianus) had the highest species richness of non-specific parasites. Analyses of similarity showed that the parasite assemblages of Brazilian flathead were qualitatively most similar in composition to striped weakfish, conger (Conger orbignianus) and Brazilian sandperch, but quantitatively similar only to striped weakfish. Brazilian flathead is benthic and striped weakfish is demersal, but both species are mainly ichthyophagous. Results suggest that ecological similarities among species in terms of habitat and diet will lead to similarity among parasitic communities of generalist parasites. The parasite communities reflect overlap in resource use (niche space) among the fishes, with the highest richness and abundance in bentho-demersal piscivorous fishes.