A Note on Thaparocleidus caecus (Mizelle Kritsky, 1969) (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) Detected with Morphological and Molecular Tools in Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Sauvage, 1878) Imported into Turkey

Abstract

Thaparocleidus caecus (Mizelleamp; Kritsky, 1969) Lim, 1996 (Dactylogyridae) was reported for the first timefromiridescentshark-catfish(Pangasianodonhypophthalmus,Sauvage,1878)importedintoTurkey via the aquarium fish trade. T. caecus were found on the gills of the examined fish with a prev-alence of 28%. Identification, based on morphological characteristics for T. caecus, was confirmed by rRNA sequencing, evidencing the transfer of T. caecus to different countries. Our results emphasize that the ornamental fish trade poses a range expansion of un-documented parasite spec

Keywords

• thaparocleidus caecus
• pangasianodon hypophthalmus
• shark-catfish
• parasite trans-fer
• aquarium fish trade