Three new species of Dactylogyrus Diesing, 1850 (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae), from Moroccan Cyprinids based on morphological and molecular data
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | With more than 2400 species belonging to 220 genera, Cyprinidae represent one of the most diversified family of freshwater fishes, present in all continents, except for Australia and South America. Cyprinid fishes are known to be parasitized by species belonging to Dactylogyrus Diesing, 1850, representing one of the most diversified helminth genera. In Morocco, Cyprinidae represent the most frequent freshwater fishes, with four genera: Luciobarbus Heckel, 1843, Carasobarbus Karaman, 1971, Labeobarbus Rűppel, 1835 and Pterocapoeta Gűnther, 1902 and 18 species (all endemic). The examination of the gill arches of Luciobarbus rifensis, L. moulouyensis and L. maghrebensis revealed the presence of new Dactylogyrus spp., which were identified using morphological characters (haptor, male copulatory organs and vagina) combined with molecular data. Apart D. falsiphallus with singular morphology associated with species-specific molecular data, we found a cryptic species complex (D. benhoussai, D. scorpius and D. varius) exhibiting a similar morphology but with differences in molecular data (i.e. variability in partial 18S rDNA, ITS-1 and 28S rDNA sequences). In addition, one of these species (D. varius) present three distinct morphological forms (D. varius forma vulgaris, D. varius f. magnus and D. varius f. dromedaries), all of them with identical molecular data. |
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