Description of two new nematode species, parasites of the Mississippi paddlefish Polyodon spathula (Acipenseriformes: Polyodontidae).

Abstract

Two new nematode species are described from the paddlefish Polyodon spathula (Walbaum) (Polyodontidae, Acipenseriformes) from the Mississippi River drainage, United States, based on specimens previously deposited in the U.S. National Parasite Collection. Those specimens were Camallanus polyodontis n. sp. (Camallanidae) from the host (site of infection not given) collected in the Yellowstone River, Montana in 1974 and Syngnathinema chitwoodi n. sp. (Daniconematidae) from the body cavity of fish collected in Mississippi in 1926. Camallanus polyodontis (male and female) is mainly characterized by the presence of a conspicuously large, oval, sclerotized formation at the base of tridents on the buccal capsule, by which it distinctly differs from all congeners. It also differs from other North American species of the genus by additional features such as the body size, the length of spicules, or the length of the female tail. Syngnathinema chitwoodi (a single subgravid female) differs from the only other congener, Syngnathinema californiense Moravec, Spangenberg and Frasca, 2001, a parasite of the circulatory system of the pipefish in California and British Columbia, mainly in that the posterior end of the muscular esophagus is not submerged into the anterior end of the glandular esophagus. Previous reports of Camallanus oxycephalus Ward and Magath, 1917 in P. spathula may be misidentifications of C. polyodontis.