Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T21:00:49.664Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

First record of the snapper-choking isopod Cymothoa excisa (Isopoda: Cymothoidae) parasitizing invasive lionfish Pterois volitans (Scorpaeniformes: Scorpaenidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2017

Alfonso Aguilar-Perera Open the ORCID record for Alfonso Aguilar-Perera [Opens in a new window] ,
Luis Quijano-Puerto ,
Evelyn Carrillo-Flota ,
Ernest H. Williams  and
Lucy Bunkley-Williams
Alfonso Aguilar-Perera*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biología Marina, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México
Luis Quijano-Puerto
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biología Marina, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México
Evelyn Carrillo-Flota
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biología Marina, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México
Ernest H. Williams
Affiliation:
Potchefstroom Campus, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico (retired), 1827 Paseo Los Robles, Mayagüez, PR 00682-7900, Puerto Rico
Lucy Bunkley-Williams
Affiliation:
Potchefstroom Campus, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico (retired), 1827 Paseo Los Robles, Mayagüez, PR 00682-7900, Puerto Rico
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: A. Aguilar-Perera Departamento de Biología Marina, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México email: alfaguilar@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Two female snapper-choking isopods Cymothoa excisa (body length 11 and 14 mm) were in the buccal cavity of two invasive lionfish Pterois volitans (total length 294 and 301 mm) collected in Alacranes Reef, southern Gulf of Mexico. This is the first record of C. excisa parasitizing invasive lionfish P. volitans in coral reefs of the Western Atlantic, where these isopods appear to have infected the host through adult prey-predator transfer.

Keywords

Invasive lionfishisopodGulf of MexicoAlacranes Reef
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 98 , Special Issue 8: Special Section: European Marine Biology Symposium Papers 2018 , December 2018 , pp. 2095 - 2097
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aguilar-Perera, A. and Tuz-Sulub, A. (2010) Non-native, invasive red lionfish (Pterois volitans [Linnaeus, 1758]: Scorpaenidae), is first recorded in the southern Gulf of Mexico, off the northern Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Aquatic Invasions 5, 9–12.Google Scholar
Bonilla-Gómez, J.L., Ramírez-Rojas, A., Badillo-Alemán, M. and Chiappa-Carrara, X. (2014) Nuevo registro de Lagodon rhomboides (Pisciformes: Sparidae) como hospedero de Cymothoa excisa (Isopoda: Cymothoidae) en la costa noroeste de la península de Yucatán. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 85, 633–637.Google Scholar
Bullard, S.A., Barse, A.M., Curan, S.S. and Morris, J.A. Jr (2011) First record of a digenean from invasive lionfish, Pterois cf. volitans (Scorpaeniformes: Scorpaenidae) in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Journal of Parasitology 97, 833–837.Google Scholar
Bunkley-Williams, L., Williams, E.H. Jr and Bashirullah, A.K. (2006) Isopods (Isopoda: Aegidae, Cymothoidae, Gnathiidae) associated with Venezuelan marine fishes (Elasmobranchii, Actinopterygii). Revista de Biología Tropical 54, 175–188.Google Scholar
Bunkley-Williams, L., Williams, E.H. Jr and Garzon-Ferreira, J. (1999) Some isopod and copepod parasites (Crustacea) of Colombian marine fishes. Caribbean Journal of Science 35, 311–314.Google Scholar
Côté, I.M., Green, S.J. and Hixon, M.A. (2013) Predatory fish invaders: insights from Indo-Pacific lionfish in the western Atlantic and Caribbean. Biological Conservation 164, 50–61.Google Scholar
Fernández Osorio, R.A., Corrada Wong, R.I., Chevalier Monteagudo, P.P., Caballero Aragón, H. and Cabrera Sanson, E. (2014) Primeros registros parasitológicos en pez león, Pterois volitans (Linnaeus, 1758), para aguas cubanas. Proceedings of the Gulf Caribbean Fisheries Institute 66, 180–185.Google Scholar
Joca, L.K., Leray, V.L., Zigler, K.S. and Brusca, R.C. (2015) A new host and reproduction at a small size for the ‘snapper-choking isopod’ Cymothoa excisa (Isopoda: Cymothoidae). Journal of Crustacean Biology 35, 292–294.Google Scholar
Kensley, B. and Schotte, M. (1989) Marine isopod crustaceans of the Caribbean. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 308 pp.Google Scholar
Loerch, S.M., McCammon, A.M. and Sikkel, P.C. (2015) Low susceptibility of invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans to ectoparasitic Neobenedenia in the eastern Caribbean. Environmental Biology of Fishes 98, 1979–1985.Google Scholar
López-Gómez, M.J., Aguilar-Perera, A. and Perera-Chan, L. (2014) Mayan diver-fishers as citizen scientists: detection and monitoring of the invasive red lionfish in the Parque Nacional Arrecife Alacranes, southern Gulf of Mexico. Biological Invasions 16, 1351–1357.Google Scholar
Morris, J.A. and Akins, J.L. (2009) Feeding ecology of invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans) in the Bahamian archipelago. Environmental Biology of Fishes 86, 389–398.Google Scholar
Poole, T. (2011) The sensitivity of the invasive lionfish, Pterois volitans, to parasitism in Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean. Physis: Journal of Marine Science 9, 44–49.Google Scholar
Ramos-Ascherl, Z., Williams, E.H. Jr, Bunkley-Williams, L., Tuttle, L.J., Sikkel, P.C. and Hixon, M.A. (2015) Parasitism in Pterois volitans (Scorpaenidae) from coastal waters of Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, and the Bahamas. Journal of Parasitology 101, 50–56.Google Scholar
Ruiz-Carus, R., Matheson, R.E., Roberts, D.E. and Whitfield, P.E. (2006) The western Pacific red lionfish, Pterois volitans (Scorpaenidae), in Florida: evidence for reproduction and parasitism in the first exotic marine fish established in state waters. Biological Conservation 128, 384–390.Google Scholar
Schofield, P.J. (2010) Update on geographic spread of invasive lionfishes (Pterois volitans [Linnaeus, 1758] and P. miles [Bennett, 1828]) in the Western North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Aquatic Invasions 5, S117–S122.Google Scholar
Sellers, A.J., Ruiz, G.M., Leung, B. and Torchin, M.E. (2015) Regional variation in parasite species richness and abundance in the introduced range of the invasive lionfish, Pterois volitans. PLoS ONE 10, e0131075.Google Scholar
Sikkel, P.C., Tuttle, L.J., Cure, K., Coile, A.M. and Hixon, M.A. (2014) Low susceptibility of invasive red lionfish (Pterois volitans) to a generalist ectoparasite in both its introduced and native ranges. PLoS ONE 9, e95854.Google Scholar
Simmons, K.R. (2014) Evidence of the enemy release hypothesis: parasites of the lionfish complex (Pterios volitans and P. miles) in the Western North Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. MSc thesis. Nova Southeastern University.Google Scholar
Thatcher, V.E., Jost, G.F. and Souza-Conceição, J.M. (2003) Comparative morphology of Cymothoa spp. (Isopoda, Cymothoidae) from Brazilian fishes, with the description of Cymothoa catarinensis sp. nov. and redescriptions of C. excisa Perty and C. oestrum (Linnaeus). Revista Brasileira do Zoologia 20, 541–552.Google Scholar
Torchin, M.E., Lafferty, K.D., Dobson, A.P., McKenzie, V.J. and Kuris, A.M. (2003) Introduced species and their missing parasites. Nature 421, 628–630.Google Scholar
Tuttle, L.J., Sikkel, P.C., Cure, K. and Hixon, M.A. (2017) Parasite-mediated enemy release and low biotic resistance may facilitate invasion of Atlantic coral reefs by Pacific red lionfish (Pterois volitans). Biological Invasions 19, 563–575.Google Scholar
Whitfield, P.E., Gardner, T., Vives, S.P., Gilligan, M.R., Courtenay, W.R. Jr, Ray, G.C. and Hare, J.A. (2002) Biological invasion of the Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans along the Atlantic coast of North America. Marine Ecology Progress Series 235, 289–297.Google Scholar
Williams, E.H. Jr and Bunkley-Williams, L. (1994) Four cases of unusual crustacean-fish associations and comments on parasitic processes. Journal of Aquatic Animal Health 6, 202–208.Google Scholar
Williams, E.H. Jr and Bunkley-Williams, L. (in press) Life cycle and history strategies of parasitic Crustacea. In Bruce, N.L. and Smit, N.J. (eds) Parasitic Crustacea. Springer.Google Scholar