Cucullanus oceaniensis Moravec, Sasal, Wuertz & Taraschewski, 2005

Gonzalez-Solis, David, Soler-Jimenez, Lilia C., Aguirre-Macedo, M. Leopoldina, McLaughlin, John P., Shaw, Jenny C., James, Anna K., Hechinger, Ryan F., Kuris, Armand M., Lafferty, Kevin D. & Vidal-Martinez, Victor M., 2019, Parasitic nematodes of marine fishes from Palmyra Atoll, East Indo-Pacific, including a new species of Spinitectus (Nematoda, Cystidicolidae), ZooKeys 892, pp. 1-26 : 1

Cucullanus oceaniensis Moravec, Sasal, Wuertz & Taraschewski, 2005

Description.

Male (1 specimen): medium-sized nematodes, whitish. Body length 6.22 mm, 183 wide. Muscular esophagus 678 long and 112 wide at its posterior part. Anterior end of esophagus forming a pseudobuccal capsule (esophastome), 214 long and 153 wide. Nerve ring slightly posterior to esophastome, 275 from anterior end of body. Deirids anterior to posterior end of esophagus, excretory pore posterior to it, at 609 and 797, respectively, from cephalic end. Eleven pairs of caudal papillae (including phasmids): 3 subventral precloacal pairs, 4 adcloacal pairs (3 subventral, 1 lateral), 4 postcloacal pairs (3 subventral, 1 lateral). A single, ventral papilla on the anterior cloacal lip. Spicules equal, similar, alate, 374 long. Gubernaculum well sclerotized, 112 long. Ventral precloacal sucker well developed, posterior margin at 690 from posterior end of body. Postdeirids 1.71 mm from tail tip. Tail conical with pointed tip, 112 long.

Host.

Abudefduf sordidus .

Site of infection.

Intestine.

Prevalence and mean intensity.

11.1 and 1.5 ± 0.7 (n = 18).

Specimens deposited.

CHCM no. 629 (voucher) (1 vial, 1 specimen ♀).

Remarks.

This single male is morphologically similar to C. bourdini and C. oceaniensis , two species described from lutjanids off New Caledonia and Anguilla marmorata Quoy & Gaimard ( Anguillidae ) in Polynesia and Melanesia ( Petter and Le Bel 1992; Moravec et al. 2005). The number and distribution of caudal papillae of this male are practically the same as those of the above-mentioned species, although much more similar to that of C. oceaniensis . However, we found some differences in body (6.22 vs 10.6-14.0 and 7.14-9.51 mm) and spicule lengths (374 vs 740-1,000 and 819-1,020 mm) of the present male. These differences could be related to the suitability of the fish hosts, since apparently the adult males in C. bourdini and C. oceaniensis are able to fully develop in lutjanids, while A. sordidus might act as a paratenic or not preferential host for this nematode, since maturity was not fully reached. According to the original descriptions of C. bourdini and C. oceaniensis , these two species share many morphometric values and have never been compared (see Petter and Le Bel 1992; Moravec et al. 2005; Moravec and Justine 2011). An examination of the type material of both species should be carried out to elucidate their possible synonymy.