A comparative analysis of the diagnostic features for identification of viviparous monogeneans from the genus Macrogyrodactylus Malmberg, 1957
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| Year of publication | 2007 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Macrogyrodactylus Malmberg, 1957 is the genus of viviparous monogeneans endemic to Africa. Because their restricted geographic distribution only few studies on macrogyrodactylids have been performed in last ten years. At present, a low quality of drawing documentations of taxonomically important structures, the complex of the sclerites on attachment apparatus are available for species identification of Macrogyrodactylus specimens from freshwater fish in Senegal. The available type material of Macrogyrodactylus specimens from the Natural History Museum London and from the Muséum National dHistoire Naturelle Paris were obtained and analysed. The specimens obtained during parasitological investigation of freshwater fish in the National park Niokolo Koba (Senegal, West Africa) were also included into this study. The analysis of the haptoral hard parts was performed using a phase contrast microscopy (Olympus BX51) and the complex of attachment sclerites was documented using a drawing attachment. Sixteen metrical characteristics of the haptoral sclerites were measured for the collected specimens. In total, seven Macrogyrodactylus species were studied: M. clarii Gussev, 1961, M. congolensis Prudhoe, 1957, M. heterobranchii NDouba et Lambert, 1999, M. karibae Douëllou et Chishawa, 1995, M. simemtiensis n. sp. and Macrogyrodactylus sp.1 (Přikrylová et Gelnar, submitted). Clear differences in the shape and size of attachment sclerites of identified Macrogyrodactylus species were shown. The detailed analysis of the shape of marginal hook sickle has shown interesting results. For several Macrogyrodactylus species, we found differences in the shape of the marginal hook sickles located on the anterolateral lobes and those on posterior margin of haptor. Here, we suggest that methods for measurements of the haptoral sclerites and requirements for description of new species of Macrogyrodactylus should be unified in future studies to allow a detailed comparison among identified species. The morphological features, such as total length of the marginal hook, hamulus point length and hamulus shaft length are proposed as the most useful metrical parameters for species identification within genus Macrogyrodactylus. |
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