REDESCRIPTION AND SYSTEMATIC STUDIES ON PROCAMALLANUS (PROCAMALLANUS) ELATENSIS FUSCO & OVERSTREET, 1979 FROM THREE RED SEA SIGANUS SP. FISHES

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Egypt.

2 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Qena, South Valley University, Egypt.

Abstract

As part of an on-going study of the helminthes parasitizing fish from the Red Sea; Hurghada, Egypt, Procamallanus (Procamallanus) elatensis Fusco & Overstreet, 1979 was collected from three different Siganus fish species (S. rivulatus, S. luridus & S. sutor). It was morphologically elucidated and examined by light and scanning electron microscopy which indicated evident previous erroneous descriptions of both the anterior position of the excretory pore at nerve ring level and absence of deirids, to be excretory pore somewhat posterior to junction of the oesophageal parts and presence of a posterior pair of deirids, located posterior to mid-body level by small distance.Furthermore, the present detailed
comparisons against the most similar Procamallanus species, casted doubt about the validity of P. sigani Yamaguti, 1935 and P. lonis Yamaguti, 1941 which could be considered as two different biological variations of Procamallanus (P.) elatensis.

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