Ciliophora

Smit, Nico J., Malherbe, Wynand & Hadfield, Kerry A., 2017, Alien freshwater fish parasites from South Africa: Diversity, distribution, status and the way forward, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 6 (3), pp. 386-401 : 397

4.1. Phylum Ciliophora

4.1.1. Apiosoma nasalis

This sessile peritrich was originally described from the nasal cavities of cyprinids from the Amur River Basin, Russia; however, in his taxonomic revision of this genus, Lom (1966) suggested that reexamination of live specimens of this species is needed to confirm its identity. Its possible presence in South Africa was first recorded by Viljoen and Van As (1983) from Pseudocrenilabrus philander collected in the Westdene Dam, Johannesburg (Table 1). The authors acknowledged the uncertainty regarding its identity, especially as they collected it from the skin and gills and not the nasal cavities, and therefore proposed that their identification be provisional until more material from other localities and fish species are collected. However, in Viljoen and Van As (1985) the same authors recorded A. nasalis from P. philander , again from the Westdene Dam, but this time without stating any uncertainties. It is thus not clear if the 1985 record was from new material or just a repeat of the 1983 record. As the 1985 record did not include more fish hosts from different localities as proposed by Viljoen and Van As (1983), the invasive status of this species is considered as uncertain.

4.1.2. Trichodinella epizootica and Trichodina nigra

Both T. epizootica and T. nigra were included in the report by Basson et al. (1983) on trichodinids from selected fishes of South Africa (also see section 3.2.1.). Basson and Van As (1993), however, suspected that their original identification was incorrect and that re-evaluation of these species will most likely show that they are not representatives of either T. epizootica or T. nigra . Until proper re-evaluation, we place both these species here in the uncertain invasion status category.