Harris, R. E., Jr.

Van Engel, Willard A.

Zwerner, D. E.

English

College of William & Mary: W&M Publish

W&M ScholarWorks VIMS Articles Virginia Institute of Marine Science 1986 Occurrence Of Some Parasites And A Commensal In The American Lobster, Homarus-Americanus, From The Mid-Atlantic Bight Willard A. Van Engel Virginia Institute of Marine Science R. E. Harris Jr. Virginia Institute of Marine Science D. E. Zwerner Virginia Institute of Marine Science Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsarticles  Part of the Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons Recommended Citation Van Engel, Willard A.; Harris, R. E. Jr.; and Zwerner, D. E., "Occurrence Of Some Parasites And A Commensal In The American Lobster, Homarus-Americanus, From The Mid-Atlantic Bight" (1986). VIMS Articles. 624. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsarticles/624 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in VIMS Articles by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@wm.edu. LOWRY, L. F•• AND K. J. FROST.1981. Feeding and trophic relationships of phocid seals andwalruses in the eastern Bering Sea. /11 D. W. Hood and J.A. Calder (editors), The eastern Bering Sea shelf: oceanog-raphy and resources, Vol. 2. p. 813-824. U.S. Dep. Commer.,Off. Mar. Pollut. Assessment, NOAA, Rockville, MD.MORROW, J. E.1919. Preliminary keys to otoliths of some adult fishes of theGulf of Alaska. Bering Sea. and Beaufort Sea. U.S. Dep.Commer., NOAA 'Thch. Rep., NMFS Cire. 420, 32 p.NEMOTO. T.1959. Food of baleen whales with reference to whale move-ments. Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst. 14:149-291.PITCHER. K. W.1981. Prey of the Steller sea lion, EU"/IIetopiasjuba.tus, in theGulf of Alaska. Fish. Bull., U.S. 19:461-412.SCHOENER, T. W.1911. Theory of feeding strategies. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst.2:369-404.SEAMAN, G. A., L. F. LOWRY, AND K. J. FROST.1982. Foods of belukha whales (Ddphi,lapleru.< !e-U(W) inwestern Alaska. Cetology 44:1-19.SMITH, G. B.1981. The biology of walleye pollock. /n D. W. Hood and J.A. Calder (editors), The eastern Bering Sea shelf: oceanog-raphy and resources. Vol. I, p. 521·551. U.S. Dep. Commer.,Off. Mar. Pollut. Assessment. NOAA, Rockville, MD.SWARrZMAN, G. L., AND R. T. HAAR.1983. Interactions between fur seal populations and fisheriesin the Bering Sea. Fish. Bull.. U.S. 81:121-132.KATHRYN J. FROSTLLOYD F. LOWRYAlaska Department ofFish and Game1800 College Roa.dFairbanlal. AK 99701OCCURRENCE OF SOME PARASITES ANDA COMMENSAL IN THE AMERICAN WBSTER,HOMARUS AMERICANUS, FROMTHE MID·ATLANTIC BIGHTILarvae of the nematode Ascaroph:i.s sp. werereported by Uzmann (1967b) from American lobsterscollected from Hudson, Block, Veatch. and CorsairCanyons on the edge of the continental shelf eastand south of southern New England (Fig. 1). Follow-ing parasitological examinations of over 3,000 coastaland offshore lobsters, Uzmann (1970) reported thatthe nematode larvae were restricted almost ex-clusively to offshore lobsters. Adult Asca:rophis sp.are intestinal parasites of fishes (Uspenskaya 1953).Although coastal and offshore lobsters occur off'Contribution No. 1217, Virginia Institute of Marine Science,Gloucester Point. VA 23062.FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 84, NO.1. 1986.northern and central New Jersey, coastal lobstersare scarce or absent south of Cape May, NJ. Thereis an active offshore commercial lobster fishery alongthe edge of the continental shelf south to NorfolkCanyon (Fig. 1).Materials and MethodsTh determine whether offshore lobsters in the Mid-Atlantic Bight have larval Ascarophi.s sp., we ex-amined the guts of 218 American lobsters, Homarusamerican-us, collected from August 1975 throughMarch 1977. Lobsters from this region had not beenexamined previously for parasites.One hundred and ninety-seven of the lobsters e.x-amined were caught in lobster traps or trawl netsby commercial and research vessels in Norfolk andWashington Canyons and from the shelf and slopebetween and adjacent to those canyons (areas III.:v,Fig. 1) at depths of 73-402 m. The remaining 21lobsters were caught by trawl nets from researchvessels off the coasts of Delaware and New Jerseyat depths of 57-95 m (area VIII, Fig. 1).The intestines and rectum were excised from livelobsters on shipboard (70% of the samples) or in thelaboratory at the Virginia Institute of MarineScience, split longitudinally, and fixed in 10%Fbrmalin2 or in Davidson's fixative No free parasiteswere found in the gut contents. In the laboratory,the gut was transferred to 35% glycerine in 70%ethanol, and part of the ethanol evaporated in a 55°Coven. Pieces of the gut were then laid open, pressedbetween two 35 x 50 mm slides, and examined forthe presence of cysts. This procedure followed therecommendation of J. R. Uzmann3•ResultsThirty-nine American lobsters were infected withlarval Ascarophis sp., encapsulated in the anteriorwall of the rectum (Thble 1). The proportion of infec-tion in 218 lobsters (17.9%) from the Mid-AtlanticBight was similar to that reported by Uzmann(1967b), when examined in a 2 x 2 contingency tableand using Yates' correction for continuity (Elliott1971). Uzmann (1967b) reported 77 infections in 314lobsters (24.5%) collected east and south of southernNew England. However, Boghen (1978) reported in-fection in the gills of 82 out of 233 lobsters (35.2%)"Reference to trade names does not imply endorsement by theNational Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA.'J. R. Uzmann, Northeast Fisheries Center Woods Hole Labora-tory. National Marinp Fisheries Service, NOAA. Woods Hole, MA02543, pers. commun. June 1974.197.'/.'///\\, '.;\.I.. IC~RSAIR,~: ":\ '.hi "-i :i.I(I I •I,I :'<: ,I/ (/,.Ic:....1 LYDONIA" ~:\p.,'.OJGILBERT) IrOCEANOGRAPHER./ ,l ~j WELKER,. t',J; Y/HYDROGRAPHER,." )/f;J VEATCH-" ..\...... !,". "",-,,- ) ATLANTIS:' ,/.r ""\,' /'// " BLOCK/"':/11I ••J j ~HUDSOH'...,:<I '\ I, '/~.~.'.o,,0o .'~'b;YFIGURE l.-Canyons and lobster sampling sites along the edge of the continental shelf, between Cape Hatteras and theeastern edge of Georges Bank.198TABLE 1.-Prevalence of American lobsters infected withnematodes, Ascarophis sp., in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, August 1975-March 1977.TABLE 2.-Numbers 01 American lobsters examined and prevalence01 infection by the larvae of the nematode Ascarophis sp. in theMid-Atlantic Bight.1 III. Norfolk Canyon and adjacent slopeIV. Between Norfolk and Washington CanyonsV. Washington CanyonVIII. Between Wilmington and Hudson Canyons."One 86 mm female contained 33 acanthocephalan cysts. Corynosoma sp.No. lobsters sampled Prevalence of(No. infected) infection (%)Sexes SexesDate Area' M F combined M F combinedAug., Sept. III 26(1) 236(6) 63(7) 3.8 16.2 11.11975Dec. 1975 III 18(3) 18(2) 36(5) 16.711.1 13.9Jan. 1975 III 3(1) 16(5) 19(6) 33.331.3 31.6Jan. 1976 IV 11(1) 13(1) 24(2) 9.1 7.7 8.3Apr. 1976 III 6(3) 9(2) 15(5) 50.022.2 33.3Apr. 1976 V 4(2) 16(4) 20(6) 50.025.0 30.0July 1976 V 7(1) 5(2) 12(3) 14.340.0 25.0Oct. 1976 V 3(0) 5(2) 8(2) 0.040.0 25.0Nov. 1976 VIII 11(1) 6(2) 17(3) 9.1 33.3 17.6Mar. 1977 VIII 2(0) 2(0) 4(0) 0.0 0.0 0.0Total 91(13) 127(26) 218(39) 14.320.5 17.9The variety of animal parasites and their inten-sity of infection are small in the Mid-Atlantic Bightlobsters. Differences in the occurrence and rates ofreported by Uzmann (1967b) and also reported fromNorthumberland Strait by Boghen (1978).Almost one-half (46.3%) of all infections occurredin the 60-79 mm size classes; intensity of infectionranged from 1 to 13 (mean 3.0) (Thble 2). None ofthe 11 lobsters>110 mm CL contained parasites.Boghen (1978) reported 51.3% infection in the60-69.9 mm range. When the occurrences of para-sites in males and females are arranged in three sizegroups, 40-59, 60-79 and 80-109 mm, and statisticallyexamined with a 2 x 3 contingency table, no depar-ture from the expected 1:1 ratio was observed.A single specimen of the commensal polychaete,Histriobdella. komari, was obtained from the gillsof a female lobster, 82 mm CL, caught in NorfolkCanyon in June 1974. Gills of four other lobsterswere excised, placed in dilute seawater in specimenbowls, and refrigerated overnight. The polychaetewas found in the sediment collected from one gill.Because of the small number of lobster gills ex-amined, an estimate of prevalence is inappropriate.Previously, Hist·/"iobdella. was reported by Uzmann(1967a) in the gills and by Simon (1968) in the gillsand bodies of New England lobsters, and by Boghen(1978) in the branchial chamber and gills of lobstersfrom Northumberland Straits.One female lobster, 86 mm CL, caught in NorfolkCanyon in August 1975, was infected with cysts ofan acanthocephalan, Corynosoma sp. Thirty-threecysts were found in the intestinal wall and in themesenteries along the outside of the intestine. AdultCorynosom.a. sp. are parasites of mammals andaquatic birds; crustaceans are first intermediatehosts and fishes are second intermediate hosts(Yamaguti 1963).According to Uzmann (1970), Cor1.jnosorna sp. isa discriminator of coastal lobster stocks. Thereforeits presence in a lobster taken in Norfolk Canyonindicates that migration from inshore to offshorewaters occurs. Montreuil (1954) reported that theacanthocephalan infections in lobsters from theMagdalen Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence, varied withthe sex of the lobster and by season: 20% of femalesand 20% of males had cysts seemingly acquiredtowards the end of summer and early fall. Boghen(1978) attributed the absence of cysts in his North-umberland Strait samples to the fact that the lob-sters were collected before the end of summer.Discussion0.9 1-121.4 1-94.1 1-135.0 1-42.8 1-52.8 1-80.9 2-317.9No. Pe tPe tNinfected rcen rcen o.01 group of total larvae,F Sum M F Sum infected infected rangeNo.examinedSizerange,CLmm M4ll-49 0 2 2 0 2 2 100.050-59 5 7 12 2 1 3 25.060-69 9 21 30 1 8 9 30.070-79 27 29 56 4 7 11 19.680-89 20 37 57 2 4 6 10.590-99 16 19 35 3 3 6 17.1100-109 7 8 15 1 1 2 13.3110-119 2 2 4 0 0 0120-129 2 1 3 0 0 0130-139 0 0 0 0 0 0140-149 1 1 2 0 0 0150-159 0 0 0 0 0 0160-169 1 0 1 0 0 0170-179 1 0 1 0 0 0Total 91 127 218 13 26 39110-149 5 4 9 0 0 0150·179 2 0 2 0 0 0from Northumberland Strait, southern Gulf of St.Lawrence. That higher proportion of infection washighly significantly different from that reported offsouthern New England and in the Mid-AtlanticBight.Mid-Atlantic Bight lobsters examined for parasitesranged from 49 to 179 mm carapace length (CL)(Thble 2). Larval Ascarophis sp. were found in 13(14.3%) of 91 male lobsters and in 26 (20.5%) of 127female lobsters. No significant difference in preva-lence of infection between males and females, whensize was ignored, could be demonstrated with a 2x 2 contingency table analysis. This agrees with theabsence of sex specificity in the canyon lobsters199infection of Asca.ropkis and COrlJt/.OSO'ffI.a and of thecommensal Histriobdella reported from Americanlobsters of the Mid-Atlantic Bight, southern NewEngland waters, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, arenot large and could be attributed to differences insample sizes or season of sampling. Peculiarly, cystsof the sporozoan Porospom sp. were not seen in Mid-Atlantic Bight lobsters, but occurred in most lobstersin the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Montreuil 1954; Boghen1978) and were reported by Uzmann (1970) fromsouthern New England waters. Cysts of the trema-tode Stichocotyl.e sp. were reported by Nickerson(1895) from Penobscot Bay, ME, and from lobsterdealers in Boston, MA; by Linton (1940) from an un-stated region. probably Woods Hole, MA; by Uzmann(1970) from southern New England waters; and byMontreuil (1954) from southern Nova Scotia orsoutheastern New Brunswick. Nickerson (1895)found the cysts only in the intestinal tract at theunion of the intestine and rectum.Literature CitedBOGHEN, A. D.1978. A parasitological survey of the American lobsterHvmarllS american1lS from the Northumberland Strait,southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Can. J. Zool. 56:2460-2462.ELLI(YIT, J. M.1971. Some methods for the statistical analysis of samples ofbenthic invertebrates. Freshw. BioI. Assoc.. Sci. Pub. 25. 148P.LINTON, E.1940. Trematodes from fishes mainly from the Woods Holeregion, Massachusetts. Proc. U.S. NatI. Mus. 88:1-172.MONTREUIL, P.1954. Parasitological investigations. Rapp. Ann. Stn. BioI.Mar. Dep. Peches Quebec. Contrib. 50:69-73.NICKERSON, W. S.1895. On Stichocotyle neph1'0p8W Cunningham, a parasite ofthe American lobster. ZooI. Jahrb., Abt. Anat. Ontog. Tiere8:447-480.SIMON, J. L.1968. Incidence and behavior of Histriobdella homari (An-nelida: Polychaeta), a commensal of the American lobster.Bioscience 18:35-36.USPENSKAYA, A. B.1953. The life cycle of nematodes of the genus Asearvph';s vanBeneden (Nematodes - Spirurata). [In Russ.] Zool. Zh. 32:828-832. (Translated by J. M. Moulton, Bowdoin College,Brunswick, ME. 1966).UZMANN, J. R.1967a. Histriobdi?Il.o. hOltl<lri (Annelida:Polychaetal in theAmerican lobster, Homa.rus a.mfi'l"icamlS. J. Parasitol. 53:210-211.1967b. Juvenile Ascarophis (Nematoda:Spiruroidea), in theAmerican lobster, Homarus ammcamlS. J. ParasitoI. 53:218.1970. Use of parasites in indentifying lobster stocks. (Abstr.)III Section II, Proceedings of the Second International Con-gress of Parasitology, p. 349. J. Parasitol. 56(4).200YAMAGUTI, S.1963. Classification of the Acanthocephala. Systema Helmin-thurn, Vol. V, Acanthocephala. Interscience Publ., 423 p.W. A. VAN ENGELR. E. HARRIS, JR.D. E. ZWERNERVirginia InstUltie ofMarine Scien,'eSchool of Ma.rine SciellceCollege of WUliam mId MaryGI<Jueester Point, VA 23062RESILIENCE OF THE FISH ASSEMBLAGEIN NEW ENGLAND TIDEPOOLS1Factors regulating density and species compositionof tidepool fishes have been little studied, partic-ularly in comparison to other elements of the inter-tidal community (Gibson 1982). 'IWenty-two collec-tions of fishes were made in two tidepools at theMarine Science and Maritime Studies Center ofNortheastern University at Nahant, MA, duringsummers from 1967 to 1985. Initially, the purposewas simply to demonstrate to my summer class inichthyology the technique of collecting fishes withrotenone. Mter several years, it became apparentthat there would be interest in examing long-termeffects of repeated poisoning of the same pools. Thepurpose of this paper is to report the data from thisseries of samples and to compare the resilience ofthis New England tidepool fish fauna with studiesdone in the Gulf of California (Thomson and Lehner1976), the central California coast (Grossman 1982),and South Africa (Beckley 1985). Unfortunately,there are no other similar tidepools in the area, soit was not possible to make control collections fromunsampled pools.MethodsThe same two tidepools were sampled each sum-mer from 1967 to 1985. The tidepools are locatedon the ocean side of East Point, in Broad Sound. Thehigher pool is at about 2 m elevation and is about1 m deep at high tide; the lower pool is slightly below1 m elevation, contains extensive red and brown algalgrowth. and is shallower. Average tidal amplitude isslightly over 3 m. One collection was made each yearexcept for 1969. 1982, and 1983 when two collectionswere made, spaced about 2 wk apart. Collections'Contribution No. 134 from the Marine Science Institute. North-eastern University, Nahant. MA 01(108.FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 84, NO. I, 1986.

Occurrence Of Some Parasites And A Commensal In The American Lobster, Homarus-Americanus, From The Mid-Atlantic Bight

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Occurrence Of Some Parasites And A Commensal In The American Lobster, Homarus-Americanus, From The Mid-Atlantic Bight

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