Curran Stephen S, Bullard Stephen A
Southeastern Cooperative Fish Parasite and Disease Laboratory, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences, College of Agriculture, Auburn University, 559 Devall Drive, Auburn, Alabama 36832.
Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom, 2520, South Africa.
J Parasitol. 2025 Jul 1;111(4):441-450. doi: 10.1645/25-22.
Saccocoelioides beauforti (Hunter and Thomas, 1961) Overstreet, 1971, an intestinal parasite of flathead grey mullet, Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, was originally described from off North Carolina (northwestern Atlantic Ocean) and purportedly ranges south and west to Louisiana (north-central Gulf of America). We surveyed the parasites of hundreds of flathead grey mullet captured from coastal habitats of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi over a 25 yr period, from 1998 through 2023. Examination of whole-mounted specimens of "S. beaufort" revealed substantial morphological variation between specimens from off North Carolina to Georgia (Northwestern Atlantic Ocean) with those from off Mississippi and Alabama (north-central Gulf of America), with some overlap in Georgia. We therefore investigated the identities of these 2 groups of parasites that were, until now, accepted as conspecific. Observations of the museum specimens and newly collected specimens, augmented by ITS2 and 28S rRNA gene fragment comparisons, indicated that S. beauforti sensu stricto infects flathead grey mullet along the eastern coast of the United States between North Carolina and Georgia. Furthermore, specimens previously identified as S. beauforti from Georgia (in part), south Florida, and the north-central Gulf of America are conspecific with Saccocoelioides macrospinosusAndrade-Gómez, Sereno-Uribe, and García-Varela, 2019, which was previously thought to infect only the Catemaco molly, Poecilia catemaconis Miller, and the white mullet, Mugil curema Valenciennes, in freshwater and brackish habitats in Veracruz, Mexico. Flathead grey mullet is a new host record for S. macrospinusus. Fish hosts and ranges for S. beauforti sensu stricto and S. macrospinosus overlap in coastal Georgia.
博福特氏似袋腹吸虫（Saccocoelioides beauforti）（亨特和托马斯，1961年），奥弗斯特里特，1971年，是鲻鱼（Mugil cephalus Linnaeus）的一种肠道寄生虫，最初是在北卡罗来纳州近海（大西洋西北部）被描述的，据称其分布范围向南和向西延伸至路易斯安那州（美国墨西哥湾中北部）。在1998年至2023年的25年时间里，我们对从佐治亚州、阿拉巴马州和密西西比州沿海栖息地捕获的数百条鲻鱼的寄生虫进行了调查。对“博福特氏似袋腹吸虫”的整体标本检查发现，来自北卡罗来纳州近海至佐治亚州（大西洋西北部）的标本与来自密西西比州和阿拉巴马州近海（美国墨西哥湾中北部）的标本在形态上存在显著差异，在佐治亚州有一些重叠。因此，我们调查了这两组迄今为止被认为是同种的寄生虫的身份。通过对博物馆标本和新采集标本的观察，并辅以ITS2和28S rRNA基因片段比较，结果表明狭义的博福特氏似袋腹吸虫感染美国东海岸北卡罗来纳州和佐治亚州之间的鲻鱼。此外，先前从佐治亚州（部分地区）、佛罗里达州南部和美国墨西哥湾中北部鉴定为博福特氏似袋腹吸虫的标本与大棘似袋腹吸虫（Saccocoelioides macrospinosus）同种，Andrade - Gómez、Sereno - Uribe和García - Varela，2019年，大棘似袋腹吸虫此前被认为仅感染墨西哥韦拉克鲁斯淡水和咸淡水栖息地的卡特马科食蚊鱼（Poecilia catemaconis Miller）和白鲻（Mugil curema Valenciennes）。鲻鱼是大棘似袋腹吸虫的新宿主记录。狭义的博福特氏似袋腹吸虫和大棘似袋腹吸虫的鱼类宿主及分布范围在佐治亚州沿海有重叠。
