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

Most fish species examined for parasites from Lake Superior were salmonids (15 species). Only
2-4 fish species were examined in the other families. Salmonids had the richest parasite fauna (45
parasite species) followed by percids (39 parasite species). Only one study was performed on the
parasites of Perca flavescens (see Dechtair and Lawrie 1988). Of the 34 helminth species found
in salmonids, 82% were autogenic, and 77% of the helminth species found in percids were
autogenic. Catostomids had the highest percentage of autogenic helminth species (86%).
Cyprinids were infected with 30 parasite species and had the highest percentage of allogenic
species (50%). Fish in all the families, except the Cyprinidae are dominated by autogenic
helminth species. Twenty-four parasite species were reported from only two fish species
examined in the Centrarchidae. Based on the available literature from a fish family and parasite
perspective, salmonids and their autogenic parasites, and Perca flavescens and its autogenic
parasites are prominent in Lake Superior, similar to the findings in Lake Michigan.
The autogenic helminth species reported for Lake Superior that mature in fish include the
larval/immature digenetic trematodes (Bucephalus elegans, Bucephalus sp., Centrovarium
lobotes), larval/immature cestodes (Bothriocephalus sp., Proteocephalus ambloplitis,
Proteocephalus sp., Triaenophorus crassus, T. nodulosus, Triaenophorus sp.), larval/immature
nematodes (Hysterothylacium brachyurum, Raphidascaris acus, Camallanus oxycephalus,
Cystidicola farionis, Haplonema sp.), and the immature acanthocephalans (Echinorhynchus sp.,
Neoechinorhynchus tumidus, Neoechinorhynchus sp., Pomphorhynchus bulbocolli,
Leptorhynchoides thecatus). Of the allogenic helminth species found, larvae of the digenetic
trematodes of Clinostomum complanatum, Crassiphiala bulboglossa, Diplostomum spathaceum,
Diplostomum sp., Neascus brevicaudatus, Neascus sp., Posthodiplostomum minimum,
Tylodelphys scheuringi, Uvulifer ambloplitis, Apophallus brevis, Ichthyocotylurus erraticus, and
I. pileatus, Ichthyocotylurus sp. mature in piscivorous birds; larvae of the cestodes of
Diphyllobothrium ditremum, D. oblongatum, and Ligula intestinalis mature in piscivorous birds;
larvae of the cestodes of Diphyllobothrium laruei and D. latum mature in mammals; larvae of the
nematode of Contracaecum sp. mature in birds, and the larval nematode, Spiroxys sp. matures in
turtles.
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