Studies on the Family Bucephalidae Poche 1907 (Trematoda) from Philippine Food Fishes

Abstract

Trematodes of Philippine food fishes have been little studied, much less the family Bucephalidae. The check list (Tubangui, 1947) of parasitic worms reported from the Philippines shows only 1 adult bucephalid, Prosorhynchus triangularis Tubangui and Masilungan, 1944 from the intestine of the freshwater fish Glossogobius giurus Buchanan-Hamilton, commonly called bia or biang puti (Tagalog). Recent reviews of this group are available (Eckmann, 1932; Verma, 1936, 1936a; Nagaty, 1937; Srivastava, 1938; Manter, 1931, 1940a, 1947, 1954; Chauhan, 1943, 1954; Dollfus, 1951; Kniskern, 1952; and Hopkins, 1954). In view of these reviews a general account of the family will not be presented. The present paper deals with the family Bucephalidae representing a part of a collection made during a survey of helminthic infection in Philippine food fishes. About 102 fishes representing 11 genera and species yielded 6 genera and 13 species of bucephalids, 12 of which are considered new to science. The fish hosts were bought from Manila markets and vicinity; information on the locality was usually supplied by the market vendors. The methods used were the same as reported by me in previous papers. All measurements are in millimeters unless otherwise stated; drawings were made with the aid of a camera lucida.