Mohapatra Sandeep Kumar, Swain Anshuman, Ray Dipanjan, Behera Rajesh Kumar, Tripathy Basudev, Seth Jaya Kishor, Mohapatra Anil
Estuarine Biology Regional Center, Zoological Survey of India Ganjam India.
Post Graduate Department of Zoology Berhampur University Berhampur India.
Ecol Evol. 2024 Sep 11;14(9):e70298. doi: 10.1002/ece3.70298. eCollection 2024 Sep.
Due to their large size and obligate nature, Cymothoid isopods inflict a high degree of tissue damage to fish. Still, they are understudied at an ecosystem level despite their global presence and ecological role. In this work, we collected fish host-isopod parasite data, along with their life history and ecological traits, from the northern part of the east coast of India and investigated patterns in host specialisation and preference of isopod parasites using a trait-based network perspective. We observed that the region of attachment of the parasite (buccal cavity, branchial cavity, and skin) and host fish ecology (schooling behaviour and habitat characteristics) influenced host specialisation and preference. We found that branchial cavity-attaching parasites preferred schooling, pelagic fishes, whereas buccal cavity-attaching parasites preferred mostly non-schooling, demersal fishes. Skin-attaching parasites were found to be generalists and had no preference based on our examined host traits.
由于其体型较大且具有专性寄生的特性，缩头水虱科等足类动物会对鱼类造成高度的组织损伤。尽管它们在全球广泛存在且具有生态作用，但在生态系统层面上仍未得到充分研究。在这项研究中，我们从印度东海岸北部收集了鱼类宿主 - 等足类寄生虫的数据，以及它们的生活史和生态特征，并从基于性状的网络视角研究了等足类寄生虫的宿主专一性和偏好模式。我们观察到寄生虫的附着部位（口腔、鳃腔和皮肤）以及宿主鱼类的生态特征（集群行为和栖息地特征）会影响宿主专一性和偏好。我们发现，附着在鳃腔的寄生虫更喜欢集群的中上层鱼类，而附着在口腔的寄生虫大多更喜欢非集群的底层鱼类。附着在皮肤的寄生虫被发现具有通用性，根据我们所研究的宿主特征没有偏好。
