Evaluating phenotypic plasticity in attachment organs of parasites can provide information on the capacity to colonise new hosts and illuminate evolutionary processes driving host specificity. We analysed the variability in shape and size of the dorsal and ventral anchors of Ligophorus cephali from Mugil cephalus by means of geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistics. We also assessed ...

Fish parasites constitute widely diversified groups of unicellular and multicellular organisms. Recently, less known parasite groups have emerged as serious pathogens. Firstly, infection with dinoflagellates of the genus Ichthyodinium has been found during seed production of leopard coral grouper, Plectoropomus leopardus, in Japan and yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares, in Indonesia. Schizonts m...

An ultrastructural study of the ovarian follicles and their associated oviducts of the cestode Gyrocotyle urna Grube et Wagener, 1852, a parasite from the spiral valve of the rabbit fish, Chimaera monstrosa L., was undertaken. Each follicle gives rise to follicular oviduct, which opens into one of the five collecting ducts, through which pass mature oocytes. These collecting ducts open into an ...

Little is known of the diversity of the monogenean parasites infesting deep-sea groupers, and there is even less information available about their geographic distributions within the ranges of their hosts. To improve our understanding of these host-parasite relationships we conducted parasitological evaluations of the deep-water Haifa grouper Hyporthodus haifensis from the southern Mediterranea...

red foxes and golden jackals are the two most abundant wild carnivores of iran which have the ability to adopt a variety of habitats and human proximity. despite this, very few investigations on their helminth and none on their external parasites infections have been carried out in iran. between 2003 and 2004, a total of 79 jackals and 37 foxes were collected from 3 different climatic zones of ...

Parasitism is a ubiquitous phenomenon that is probably as old as heterotrophic organisms themselves. It is one of the major types of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species. The development of the biological sciences brought about a broader definition of parasitism. By the end of the nineteenth century, it was known that parasites thrive at the expense of their hosts and u...

Biological indicators are species that can be employed to monitor environmental quality and ecosystem health. Different groups of organisms such as plants, animals, bacteria and parasites regularly produce certain molecular signal in response to changes in their environmental milieu. Parasites are important tools for providing wealth of information on physicochemical quality, environmental stre...

It is thought that allogrooming is practised strategically in order to establish, maintain and reinforce social bonds between group members, exchanging one altruistic behaviour for a different form of reciprocated benefit at a later date. Correlational evidence supports this, but evidence of causality is lacking. We reduced parasite loads in eight meerkat Suricata suricatta groups, generating a...