Haliotrematoides spp. (Monogenoidea: Dactylogyridae) parasitizing Lutjanus guttatus (Lutjanidae) in two localities of the Pacific coast of Mexico, and their phylogenetic position within the Ancyrocephalinae through sequences of the 28S rRNA

Resumen

Specimens of wild populations of the spotted rose snapper, Lutjanus guttatus (Steindacher) were studied for monogenean parasites in 2 localities along the Mexican Pacific coast (Mazatlán, Sinaloa and Chamela Bay, Jalisco). Five species of dactylogyrids were found on the gills of their hosts: Haliotrematoides guttati (García-Vargas, Fajer-Ávila, & Lamothe-Argumedo, 2008), H. plectridium Kristky and Mendoza-Franco in Kritsky, Tingbao, & Yuan, 2009, H. spinatus Kristky and Mendoza-Franco in Kritsky et al. (2009), Euryhaliotrema perezponcei García-Vargas, FajerÁvila & Lamothe-Argumedo, 2008 and E. mehen (Soler-Jiménez, García-Gasca, & Fajer-Avila, 2012). Freshly collected specimens provided an opportunity to study and compare specimens from different localities in further detail and few morphological characters were added to the
description of each species. Additionally, a fragment of 856 bp of the 28S ribosomal RNA (D1–D3) was obtained for all the sampled monogeneans, and a phylogenetic analysis along with all available sequences of dactylogyrids was conducted to establish the systematic position of the species within the Ancyrocephalinae. Our results suggest that species of Haliotrema might be included in Haliotrematoides genus. In addition, the genetic divergence data suggest that H. guttati and H. spinatus may represent a species complex; however, this asseveration needs additional data.