Al-Jufaili, S.

Dmitrieva, E. V.

Gerasev, P. I.

Machkevskyi, V. K.

English

A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Marine Biological Research Open access repository

  59 
7th International Symposium on Monogenea, August 4-9, 2013, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil 
P23 - First records of species of Ligophorus Euzet et Suriano, 1977 (Ancyrocephalidae) 
from the Sea of Oman 
 
Evgenija V. Dmitrievaa, Pavel I. Gerasevb, Vladimir K. Machkevskyic, Sara Al-Jufailic 
 
a Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, Nakhimov Ave. 2, Sevastopol, 99011 Ukraine  
b Zoological Institute Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab.1, St Petersburg, 199034 Russia 
c Laboratory of Parasitology, Fishery Quality Control Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth, 
Sultanate of Oman, P.O. Box: 427, Muscat - Postal Code: 100 
 
To date, 51 nominal species of Ligophorus Euzet & Suriano, 1977 are known, most of which 
have been described from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and their associated seas. Although 
eight species have recently been described from the Red Sea, along with a similar number from 
the Strait of Malacca, and one species is known from freshwaters in Iran, there are no published 
records of species directly attributed to Ligophorus from the Indian Ocean itself. The Sea of 
Oman, which is an arm of the Arabian Sea and thus forms part of the Indian Ocean, lies between 
regions from which representatives of this genus are already known. Consequently, data on the 
occurrence of Ligophorus spp. in this sea are of great interest for a better understanding the 
phylogeography of this genus. About 12 species of the Mugilidae inhabit the Sea of Oman; some 
of these are widespread throughout the world’s oceans, whereas others are endemic to this 
region. Among the mullets investigated in this study, Crenimugil crenilabris (Forsskål) and 
Moolgarda seheli (Forsskål) occur in coastal waters throughout much of the Indo-Pacific region. 
The former is infected by Ligophorus bykhowskyi Dmitrieva et al., 2012 and L. zhangi Dmitrieva 
et al., 2012, which have been described from the same host in the Red Sea, whereas two 
innominate species occur in the latter host, both of them previously reported from the South 
China Sea off Vietnam as Ligophorus sp. 9 (Gerasev et al., 2011) on the same host species and 
Ligophorus sp. 15 (Dmitrieva et al., 2012) on Liza affinis (Günther). These monogeneans appear 
accompany their hosts throughout much of their distribution. Moreover, all four of the above-
mentioned Ligophorus spp. simultaneously parasitise specimens of Liza tricuspidens (Smith), 
which occurs off the Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts of Africa. The occurrence of this mullet in 
the Indian Ocean together with the other two host species of these monogeneans would appear 
to be conducive to the host-switching of Ligophorus spp. between them. Whereas only one 
species of Ligophorus is found on Oedalechilus labiosus (Valenciennes), which is widely 
distributed not only in the Indian but also in the Pacific Ocean, this species is new and has unique 
morphological characters. The fifth of the mullets examined, Liza persicus (Senou, Randall & 
Okiyama), has the most limited distribution, occurring only in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of 
Oman. However the three Ligophorus spp. which are found on this fish, namely L. mamaevi 
Dmitrieva et al., 2012, L. bipartitus Dmitrieva et al., 2012 and L. surianoae Dmitrieva et al., 2012, 
have also been reported from Liza carinata in the Red Sea. It should be noted that the specimens 
from the Sea of Oman identified as Ligophorus mamaevi have some minor differences in the 
shape of the copulatory organ compared with the original description and may prove to be 
representatives of a new species. The type-host of these three species also occurs in the Sea of 
Oman but has not yet been examined. The first results of our study of the fauna of Ligophorus in 
the Sea of Oman have shown that it is rich in terms of both the quantitative and the qualitative 
nature of its composition. Eight Ligophorus spp. have been found on the five mugilids, including 
one new species, five species of which are also reported from the Red Sea and two species from 
the South China Sea. Moreover, seven of them are recorded on new host species. Thus the data 
obtained in this study significantly enhance our knowledge of the distribution and specificity of 
members of this genus. 
 
Study financed by the RFFI № 12–04–00134 and supported by the TRC-project: ORG-EBR_11-TRC and Ministry of 
Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth, Sultanate of Oman 
 
 
 
 


First records of species of Ligophorus Euzet et Suriano, 1977 (Ancyrocephalidae) from the Sea of Oman

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First records of species of Ligophorus Euzet et Suriano, 1977 (Ancyrocephalidae) from the Sea of Oman

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