Abstract
IN the course of a survey of the parasite fauna of gadoid fishes in the northern North Sea, I have examined 28 cod (Gadus callarias L.) from various localities along the east coast of Scotland in the second half of 1958. The fish were all less than one year old and ranged in size from 12.4 to 18.6 cm. Three of these fish were infested by a species of Gyrodactylus (Trematoda: Monogenea), not hitherto recorded from British waters. The parasites were attached to the gills (rakers, bars and filaments) and within the buccal cavity of their hosts. One cod was found to harbour five specimens of Gyrodactylus in its nostrils—a somewhat unusual habitat for this trematode genus. The numbers of parasites varied from host to host, the lowest being 6 and the highest 197 specimens. All three infested fish were caught relatively near the shore: one was taken in the Firth of Forth, 5 miles east of May Island, and two about 15 miles south-east of Stonehaven, at a depth between 55 and 68 m.
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KABATA, Z. A Monogenetic Trematode New to the British Fauna. Nature 183, 481 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/183481a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/183481a0
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