Comparative population biology of fish digenes : The case of 3 Helicometra (Trematoda, Opecoelidae) mesoparasites of marine teleosts in a mediterranean lagoon

• Main Authors: Reversat, Jérôme, Silan, Patrick
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Parasitologie comparée, Université Montpellier 2 - Sciences et Techniques (UM2), Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie (MIO), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Toulon (UTLN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 1993
• Subjects: marine ecosystem; fish; Gobius niger; Zosterisessor ophiocephalus; Symphodus cinereus; Anguilla anguilla; Helicometra sp; mesoparasitism; population biology; evolution; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; [SDV.BID.EVO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE]; [SDV.EE.IEO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment/Symbiosis; [SDV.MP.PAR]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Microbiology and Parasitology/Parasitology; [SDV.BA.ZI]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Invertebrate Zoology
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01074907; https://hal.science/hal-01074907/document; https://hal.science/hal-01074907/file/Reversat%26Silan1993.pdf

International audience In the Etang de Thau (Herault, France), three species of Helicometra parasitize in their adult stage the digestive tract of the black goby Gobius niger, the grass goby Zosterisessor ophiocephalus, the grey wrasse Symphodus cinereus, and the common eel Anguilla anguilla (Teleostei). These fish act as definitive hosts in the biological cycle of these platyhelminths. Also H. gobii exists in G. niger, Z. ophiocephalus, S. cinereus and A. anguilla H. fasciata is found in G. niger and H. pulchella is only found in S. cinereus. In the case of the two gobies and the eel, these three congeneric digenes sometimes coexist in the same infracommunity. Spatio-temporal analysis of these different populations has enabled : 1) detection of seasonal variations in their structure, 2) identification of the relationships between the nature of their specificity and demographic strategy, and 3) the global absence of statistical dependence between the intensities of different species in the same infracommunity to be show. Implications arising from previous research concerning the demographic behaviour of these trematodes in their first intermediate host (mollusc compartment), were taken into account when interpreting structures observed in the definitive hosts. The problems of coexistence between these species, which are taxonomically very close in the same parasite community, and the under-lying speciation mechanisms are discussed in the light of population structuration.