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New locality record for the parasitic leech Pterobdella amara, and two new host stingrays at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2010

Owen R. O'Shea
Owen R. O'Shea*
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, 6150 The Australian Institute of Marine Science, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: O.R. O'Shea, School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, 6150, Australia email: [email protected]
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Abstract

An individual of the cowtail stingray (Pastinachus sephen) was identified at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia as having a high number of parasitic leeches and gnathiid isopods primarily inhabiting its mouth, jaw and gills. It was underweight for its length and disc width when compared with other individuals of this species and its stomach was bloated and empty. It is proposed that the high density of these parasites directly led to the physical degradation and bodyweight of this individual. In addition to observing two previously undescribed hosts from this location, this is also a new locality record for this species of parasitic leech in Western Australia.

Keywords

gnathiid isopodsNingaloo Reefraysparasitic leeches
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 3 , June 2010 , e113
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

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References

REFERENCES

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