Review of Parasitic Copepods Recorded in Fish from Turkey

This review presents the occurrence of 62 parasitic copepod species from 72 different fish species (64 wild, two cultured, seven from aquarium) from Turkey. The parasite species list is arranged by providing parasite species name, host fish, location of host fish capture and author, date of published record. All parasites and their hosts are confirmed with the recent systematic accounts and full taxonomic account according to literature and internet database. Siphonostomatoida with 47 species and Caligidae with 12 species are the dominant order and family among parasitic copepoda with regard to species diversity, host distribution and location.

Macroevolutionary patterns of sexual size dimorphism in copepods

Major theories compete to explain the macroevolutionary trends observed in sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in animals. Quantitative genetic theory suggests that the sex under historically stronger directional selection will exhibit greater interspecific variance in size, with covariation between allometric slopes (male to female size) and the strength of SSD across clades. Rensch's rule (RR) also suggests a correlation, but one in which males are always the more size variant sex. Examining free-living pelagic and parasitic Copepoda, we test these competing predictions. Females are commonly the larger sex in copepod species. Comparing clades that vary by four orders of magnitude in their degree of dimorphism, we show that isometry is widespread. As such we find no support for either RR or for covariation between allometry and SSD. Our results suggest that selection on both sexes has been equally important. We next test the prediction that variation in the degree of SSD is related to the adult sex ratio. As males become relatively less abundant, it has been hypothesized that this will lead to a reduction in both inter-male competition and male size. However, the lack of such a correlation across diverse free-living pelagic families of copepods provides no support for this hypothesis. By comparison, in sea lice of the family Caligidae, there is some qualitative support of the hypothesis, males may suffer elevated mortality when they leave the host and rove for sedentary females, and their female-biased SSD is greater than in many free-living families. However, other parasitic copepods which do not appear to have obvious differences in sex-based mate searching risks also show similar or even more extreme SSD, therefore suggesting other factors can drive the observed extremes.

Contribution to the knowledge of the parasitic fauna of fish off Adelie Land, Antarctica

In total, 42 fish belonging to 16 species were examined. All fish were infected. Parasitic worms were endoparasites: Digenea (eight species), Cestoda (three mixed groups of larval forms), Acanthocephala (two species) and Nematoda (one species in adult and one in larval stage, and two Contracaecum spp. in larval stage). Undetermined parasitic Copepoda and Hirudinea were external parasites. Summing up previous and new data 25 species and mixed groups were found. Parasites in larval stage using fish as intermediate or paratenic hosts were more numerous than species maturing in fish. For example, 1913 nematodes Contracaecum spp. were recorded in one fish, whereas the digenean, Genolinea bowersi, was the most numerous maturing parasite (168 specimens in one fish).