A revision of (Monogenea, Plectanocotylidae), with molecular barcoding of three species and the description of a new species from the streaked gurnard off Algeria.

BACKGROUND

The family Plectanocotylidae includes parasites of the gills of marine fish; although nine genera and about 20 species have been described, almost no molecular information is available. Putting aside Diesing, 1850, supposedly a parasite of the white perch , never found again since its original description, two species were valid within Diesing, 1850 before this work: (Van Beneden & Hesse, 1863) Llewellyn, 1941 and Boudaya, Neifar & Euzet, 2006.

METHODS

In this paper, we describe the third species of the genus and perform a comparative morphological and molecular analysis of the three species and of (Euzet & Suriano, 1974) Mamaev, 1976. Host fishes were also barcoded (COI) for confirmation of host identifications.

RESULTS

n. sp. is described from the gills of the streaked gurnard collected off Algeria. The species is compared with specimens of cf. (from ) from the same locality and and (both from the longfin gurnard ). Molecules from cf. could not be compared with from the type-host and type-locality and we kept the status of the Mediterranean specimens as pending. Algeria is a new geographic record for and . n. sp. is distinguished from the other species found in the Mediterranean by the measurements of clamps, number of testes, and COI sequences, with notable divergence (7.8-11.8%) from the other two species of the genus.

DISCUSSION

We briefly present a list of currently known members of the family Plectanocotylidae, their biology and their hosts.