Some Digenetic Trematodes of Embiotocid Fishes from Tomales and Bodega Bay, California

Rodella, Thomas; Nahhas, F

Main Body Text: The fish family Embiotocidae is of particular interest to parasitologists because its limited geographic distribution affords the opportunity to study ecological-physiological specificity between its members and their parasites. The family, represented according to Tarp (1952, California Dept. Fish and Game Bull. 88) by 23 species in 12' genera, is primarily marine, with 20 species in the North American Pacific and two in Japanese and Korean waters. The only freshwater embiotocid is the Tule perch, Hysterocarpus traski, of California rivers. The trematodes of embiotocid fishes have been studied extensively by Arai (1954, J. Parasit. 40: 356-359; 1963, An. Inst. BioI. Mexico 33: 113-130; 1967, J. Fish. Res. Bd. Canada 24: 2161-2168) and to a lesser extent by other workers on the Pacific Coast: Lloyd and Guberlet (1932, J. Paras it. 18: 232-239), McFarlane (1936, J. BioI. Bd. Canada 2: 335-347), Park (1937, Tr. Am. Micr. Soc. 56: 67-71), Lloyd (1938, J. Parasit. 24: 103-133), Manter and Van Cleave Proc. USNM 101: 3279: 315-340, 20 Young (1953, J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 43: 8g. Tinter (1954, Ciencia, Mexico 14: 1402 Montgomery (1957, Tr. Am. Micr. Sag 13-36), and Ching (1960, J. Parasit. 46:' 250) . Except for Park's work in which he described Genitocotyle acirra from Dillon Beach, the studies were surveys of either the Southern-Baja California regions or the Washington-British Columbia coasts. The. paper, for which 2.34 fishes representin embiotocid species were examined during 1967 and 1968, helps to bridge this geographical gap and reports six Digenea. Table I lists the fish species studied, shows the number infected, the total number examined, the Digenea in each host, the total number of parasites and the number of parasites in each fish.

Some Digenetic Trematodes of Embiotocid Fishes from Tomales and Bodega Bay, California

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