Examination of a total of 581 fish specimens of 15 species from 39 cenotes (sinkholes) in the Yucatan Peninsula, southeastern Mexico, revealed the presence of 10 species of adult trematodes. These were as follows: Saccocoelioides sogandaresi Lumsden, 1963, Saccocoelinides sp. (family Haploporidae), Cichlasotrema ujati Pineda et Andrade, 1989 (Angiodictyidae), Crassicutis cichlasomae Manter, 1936 (Homalometridae), Magnivitellinum simplex Kloss, 1966 (Macroderoididae), Stunkardiel-la minima (Stunkard, 1938) (Acanthostomidae), Oligogonotylus manieri Watson, 1976 (Cryptogonimidae), Genarchella tropica (Manter, 1936), G. astyanactis (Watson, 1976), and G. isabellae (Lamothe-Argumedo, 1977) (Derogenidae). Saccocoelioides sogandaresi is reported from Mexico for the first time. Poecilia velifera and P. latipunctata for S. sogandaresi, Cichlasoma octo-fasciatum for C. cichlasomae, Cichlasoma friedrichslahli and C. meeki for O. manieri, and C. meeki, C. octofasciatum and Go-hiomorus dormitor for C. isabellae represent new host records. Most species found are described and figured and their host range
The present paper comprises a systematic survey of adult nematodes collected from fishes from cenotes (= sinkholes) of the Peninsula of Yucatan, southeastern Mexico, in 1993-1994. Examinations of a total of 533 fishes (17 species) originating from 39 cenotes from the Mexican states of Yucatan and Quintana Roo revealed the presence of the following nine nematode species: Rhabdochona (Rhabdochona) kidderi, Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) rebecae, P. (S.) neacaballeroi, Philome-trnides caudata, Hysterothylacium cenotae, Pseudocapillaria yucatanensis, Paracapillaria rhamdiae, P. teixerafreitasi and Capillostrongyloides sp. (only females). Four species (R. kidderi, P. rebecae, P. neacaballeroi and Capillostrongyloides sp.) are briefly described and illustrated and some problems concerning their morphology, taxonomy, hosts and geographical distribution are discussed. Taxonomic changes include Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) neacaballeroi (Caballero-Deloya, 1977) comb. n. and Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) rebecae (Andrade-Salas, Pineda-López ct Garcfa-Magana, 1994) comb. n. The nematode fauna of fishes in cenotes of the Yucatan Peninsula shows its appurtenance to the Neotropical fauna with close affinities with that of fish nematodes from South America, but with a considerable degree of endemism.
A new nematode species, Philometroides caudata sp.n., is described from the swimbladder (under the serosa cover) of the freshwater pimelodid catfish, Rhamdia guatemalensis, from cenotes (— sinkholes) in Yucatan, southeastern Mexico. It differs from all hitherto known members of the genus, except P. maplestoni (Travassos, Artigas et Pereira, 1928), in having the functional anus, the conical tail with a terminal knob-like structure and the oesophagus without an anterior inflation in female, and in the structure of the caudal end in male. It can be distinguished from P. maplestoni (described only from females) by the extent of embossed cuticle, the size of body and the host type. P. caudata, representing a Neotropical element, is the first Philometroides species reported from freshwater fishes in Mexico.
A description is given of the life cycle of the nematode Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) rebecae (Andrade-Salas, Pineda-Lopez et García-Magafia, 1994), an intestinal parasite of cichlids in Mexico. The copepod Mesocyclnps sp. was found to be a suitable experimental intermediate host. After the copepod’s ingestion of free first-stage larvae of the nematode, these enter the haemocoel of the intermediate host; they moult twice (on the 3rd and 5-6th day p.i. at 21-22”C) before they attain the third, infective stage. The third-stage larva already possesses the large buccal capsule without spiral thickenings and its tail tip bears three cuticular spines. The larvae undergo two additional moults (13-14 days and 42 days p.i.) in the definitive host (Cichlasoma urophthalmus) before changing to adults; the prepatent period is about 2-3 months. Experimental infection of guppies, Poecilia reticulata, have shown that these fishes may become paratenic (metaparatenic) hosts of this parasite. The morphology of individual larval stages of this nematode is described.