Giacomo Sardo, Charles Odilichukwu R. Okpala, Teresa Bottari, Gioacchino Bono and Sergio Vitale
Keywords: Mullidae, checklist, parasite, demersal species, Mediterranean Sea
Abstract: Checklists about parasites of economically important fishery species at either one and/or many parts of the globe are available in (relevant) scientific literature. However, recent/up-to-date checklist about parasite of mullidsspecific to Mediterranean Sea seems not available. Thus, thespecific objective of present study was to produce a checklist from published records about (macro) parasites of two Mullus spp. fish species, namely: Mullus barbatus (Red Mullet) and Mullus surmuletus (Striped Red Mullet) of Mediterranean Sea. Google Scholar served as the primary search engine to acquire all relevant literature. Scientific name(s) of fish parasites were checked (and crosschecked) via World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Results showed four different parasite phyla namely: Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Acanthocephala and Crustacea, within the Mediterranean Sea. Platyhelminthes was represented by 35 species, Nematoda by 16 species, Acanthocephala by 6 species and Crustacea by 5 species. Composition of parasite fauna demonstrated the importance of these two mullids species as final host of parasites of piscivorus fish. Overall, this checklist provides an update of parasites phyla/species richness - feasibly the first research step into studying the phyla of such parasite(s).
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