Parasites of Fish from the Great Lakes - Great Lakes Fishery ...

most similar among fish or fish families in the same order and within the general thermal-habitat
designations, and most dissimilar among fish or fish families from different orders and different
general thermal-habitat designations.
Species-richness is the number of parasite species and distinct genera (parasite genus reported
from a fish but a species for that genus was not given in the original article) infecting a fish
species or fish family. The Jaccard coefficient of community similarity (CCj) used to quantify
parasite community similarity between two fish species or two fish families, was calculated as
CCj = C/(S1 + S2 – C)
where S1 and S2 are the number of parasite species in each of two fish species or two fish families,
and C is the number of species common to both species or families (Brower and Zar 1984). The
coefficients range from 0 to 1.0. Generally, as the number of parasite species and distinct genera
that infect both fish species or fish in both families being compared increases, so does the
coefficient, indicating the parasite communities are more similar.
One caveat is important to mention regarding this synopsis. A rigorous statistical analysis to
identify determinants of the parasite species present, the parasite communities present, and
parasite species-richness in several fish species and in fish families within a Great Lake, and
between and among these lakes is not one of our objectives and is beyond the scope of this
synopsis. For those investigators who are interested in such statistical analyses, there are several,
including Bell and Burt (1991), Aho and Bush (1993), Takemoto et al. (2005), Kennedy (2009),
and references therein.
Parasite Species
LAKE MICHIGAN
Results
Ninety parasite species in 11 major parasite groups (1 Mastigophora, 2 Ciliophora, 20 Myxozoa,
1 Microspora, 12 adult Digenea, 4 larval/immature Digenea, 2 Monogenea, 8 adult Cestoda, 7
larval/immature Cestoda, 10 adult Nematoda, 3 larval/immature Nematoda, 8 adult
Acanthocephala, 5 Hirudinea, 7 Copepoda) were found in 44 fish species examined from Lake
Michigan (Table 2). The parasites by taxonomic group and family infecting fish from Lake
Michigan are listed in Table 3. Although Eubothrium salvelini, Cyathocephalus truncatus,
Proteocephalus sp., Raphidascaris acus, Capillaria sp., Dichelyne cotylophora, Cystidicola
stigmatura, Acanthocephalus dirus, Echinorhynchus salmonis, Pomphorhynchus bulbocolli, and
Leptorhynchoides thecatus occurred in both adult and larval/immature stages, they are listed as
adults and only counted once. A total of 41 studies conducted during 1874-2010 have reported on
some aspect of a parasite species infecting one or more fish species from Lake Michigan. Most
studies were done after 1959 (Table 4).
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