Ascarophis

Arai, Hisao P. & Smith, John W., 2016, Guide to the Parasites of Fishes of Canada Part V: Nematoda, Zootaxa 4185 (1), pp. 1-274 : 90

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4185.1.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0D054EDD-9CDC-4D16-A8B2-F1EBBDAD6E09
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5626778
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/038FB248-FFE8-FFEC-89B9-C01E25019F8D
treatment provided by	Plazi (2016-11-08 07:41:12, last updated by Guilherme 2025-02-13 19:53:50)
scientific name	Ascarophis
status

Treatment

Ascarophis sp.

Sites: intestinal lumen, stomach

Hosts: Coregonus nasus (8); Cottus aleuticus (5); Gadus macrocephalus (5); Gadus morhua (9); Hexagrammos decagrammus (1, 5); Mallotus villosus (6); Nautichthys oculofasciatus (5); Oncorhynchus gorbuscha (2, 4); Reinhardtius hippoglossoides (7)

Distribution: Atlantic, British Columbia, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Pacific

Records: 1. Margolis 1977 (PA); 2. Anon. 1981 (BC); 3. Sankurathri et al. 1983 (PA); 4. Anon. 1984 (BC); 5. Ko 1986 (BC, PA); 6. Arthur et al. 1995 (AT); 7. Boje et al. 1997 (AT); 8. Choudhury & Dick 1997 (NT): 9. Khan et al. 2011 (NF)

Comments: Five Ascarophis species are known currently from Canadian fishes. Appy (1981) provided good

descriptions and illustrations for A. arctica , A. extalicola and A. filiformis ; the original descriptions of A. morrhuae

and A. sebastodis are relatively poor. Taxonomic problems concern morphology of the head of both sexes, and the

tails of males. Regarding the head, the pseudolabia of A. extalicola have a blunt knob rather than the prominent conical apex of A. arctica and A. filiformis , so Appy (op. cit.) and Ko (1986) suggested that A. extalicola might be related to “ Cystidicoloides ” [species of which have been transferred to Salmonema ; see page 100]. Regarding male tails, an area rugosa, narrow caudal alae, six pairs of post-cloacal papillae, and paired phasmids behind the 6th pair of papillae appear to be diagnostic. Appy (op. cit.) pointed out that papillae of the 5th pair are relatively small and ventral to the 6th pair, so earlier workers might have overlooked them. Indeed, Figure 55 View FIGURE 55 B illustrates an A. morrhuae male, redrawn from Berland (1961), apparently with only five pairs of post-cloacal papillae, and structures that are [sic] “possibly the phasmids”. The description of neither A. morrhuae nor A. sebastodis mentions an area rugosa; there is no reference to paired phasmids for A. sebastodis ; and caudal alae are not mentioned in the descriptions for either species, although Figure 55 View FIGURE 55 B illustrates them for A. morrhuae . Both A. morrhuae and A. sebastodis should be redescribed and illustrated with special attention to the morphology of heads and tails.

References

Anthony, D. D. (1984) Helminth parasites of white bass (Morone chrysops) from Lake Nipissing, Ontario. Program and Abstracts. 59 th Annual Meeting, American Society of Parasitologists, 05 - 09 August 1984. Snowbird, Utah, p. 27.

Appy, R. G. (1981) Species of Ascarophis van Beneden, 1870 (Nematoda: Cystidicolidae) in North Atlantic fishes. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 59, 2193 - 2205. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1139 / z 81 - 297

Arthur, J. R., Albert, E. & Boily, F. (1995) Parasites of capelin (Mallotus villosus) in the St. Lawrence estuary and gulf. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 52 (Suppl. 1), 246 - 253. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1139 / f 95 - 532

Berland, B. (1961) Nematodes from some Norwegian marine fishes. Sarsia, 2, 1 - 50. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1080 / 00364827.1961.10410245

Boje, J., Riget, F. & Koie, M. (1997) Helminth parasites as biological tags in population studies of Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides (Walbaum )), in the north - west Atlantic. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 54, 886 - 895. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1006 / jmsc. 1997.0214

Choudhury, A. & Dick, T. A. (1997) Parasites of the broad whitefish from the Mackenzie Delta. In: Tallman, R. F. & Reist, J. D. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Broad Whitefish Workshop: the biology, traditional knowledge and scientific management of broad whitefish (Coregonus nasus (Pallas )) in the lower Mackenzie River: p. 167 - 177. Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, No. 2193, xi + 219 pp.

Khan, R. A., Chandra, C. V. & Earle, P. (2011) Comparison of metazoan parasites of Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, from three geographical areas of coastal Newfoundland. Journal of Parasitology, 97, 270 - 274. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1645 / ge- 2510.1

Ko, R. C. (1986) A preliminary review of the genus Ascarophis van Beneden, 1871 (Nematoda: Cystidicolidae) of the gastrointestinal tract of fishes. Department of Zoology, University of Hong Kong, Occasional Publications, 54 pp.

Sankurathri, C. S., Kabata, Z. & Whitaker, D. J. (1983) Parasites of the Pacific hake, Merluccius productus (Ayres, 1855) in the Strait of Georgia, in 1974 - 1975. Syesis, 16, 5 - 22.

Figures

FIGURE 55. Ascarophis morrhuae van Beneden, 1871. A. anterior end, lateral view; B. male, posterior end with short (right) spicule, arrows indicate structures that are “ possibly the phasmids ” [sic]; C. female, posterior end showing extent of uterus, eggs evidently lacking polar filaments. (A. and B. redrawn from Berland 1961; C. redrawn from Ko 1986)