Intraguild interactions between five congeneric species of Thaparocleidus (Monogenoidea) from the freshwater shark Wallago attu , Lucknow, India

• Published in: Journal of Helminthology
• Main Authors: Agrawal, N., Rajvanshi, S., Asthana, A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2017
• Subjects: Animal Science and Zoology; General Medicine; Parasitology; Gusev; Attu
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022149x17000049; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022149X17000049

Abstract The fish host ( Wallago attu ) and monogenoid parasite ( Thaparocleidus sp.) have been recorded during 2 years (2011 and 2012) to investigate intra/interspecific interactions among query species ( T. sudhakari (Gusev, 1976) Lim, 1996; T. indicus (Kulkarni, 1969) Lim, 1996; T. gomtius (Jain, 1952) Lim, 1996; T. yogendraii Agrawal, 1981 and T. wallagonius Jain, 1952) in the light of parasitic worm burden, morphological and molecular data. Each species is highly host specific (oioxenous), with a specialized functional niche. Being niche specialists, they exhibit niche overlapping along with co-existence due to reproductive barrier. Furthermore, a molecular marker, affirming clear-cut genetic variation in spite of structural entities, provides evidence for infra-speciation as well as co-speciation.