Six new host records and an updated list of wild hosts for Neobenedenia melleni (MacCallum) (Monogenea: Capsalidae)

Abstract

Six new host records and an updated list of wild hosts for Neobenedenia melleni (MacCallum) (Monogenea: Capsalidae) are provided. We report specimens of N. melleni from the skin of a whitefin shark-sucker (Echeneis neucratoides Zuieuw [Echeneidae]) caught off Mayaguez, Puerto Rico; from the skin of a mosquitofish (Gambusia xanthosoma Greenfield [Poeciliidae]) caught in Little Salt Creek, Grand Cayman Island, British West Indies; from a freshwater immersion bath of red grouper (Epinephelus morio (Valenciennes) [Serranidae]) caught in the Gulf of Mexico off Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A.; from the skin of a garden eel (Heteroconger hassi (Klausewitz and Eibl-Eibesfeldt) [Congridae]) in the Toledo Zoo, Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A.; from the skin of a raccoon butterflyfish (Chaetodon lunula (Cuvier) [Chaetodontidae]) in the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.; and from the gill cavity of a red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus (Poey) [Lutjanidae]) in holding facilities at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, U.S.A. Neobenedenia melleni had not been reported previously from a suspected wild host in the Gulf of Mexico (i.e., E. morio) or from a member of Echeneidae, Atheriniformes, or Anguilliformes. Published host records indicate that N. melleni exhibits a relatively low degree of host specificity among captive and wild hosts; in nature, N. melleni infests predominantly shallow-water or reef teleosts.