Lophius litulon ( Jordan )

Moravec, F. & Nagasawa, Kazuya, 2000, Some anisakid nematodes from marine ® shes of Japan and the North Paci ® c Ocean, Journal of Natural History 34 (8), pp. 1555-1574 : 1567-1568

Host. Lophius litulon ( Jordan) ( Lophiidae , Lophiiformes ).

Site of infection. Digestive tract.

Locality. East China Sea (26 October 1987) .

Comments

The general morphology of present specimens corresponds, more or less, to the descriptions of H. rigidum , considered here as a junior synonym of H. marinum , as given for example by Schuurmans-Stekhove n (1935), Stefanski (1936) or Hartwich (1975). The shape of the lips in our specimens is more similar to that illustrated for this species by Stefanski (1936). The length of spicules is similar to that reported by Hartwich (1975) and the number of postanal papillae is identical, whereas preanal papillae are more numerous, which may be considered as intraspeci®c variability; Yamaguti (1935) reported 25 pairs of preanal papillae. This species is characterized by a relatively very long caecum extending anteriorly nearly to the level of the nerve ring.

This species, a parasite of ®shes of the family Lophiidae in Europe, is mostly reported as H. rigidum . However, we follow here Yamaguti (1935), who considered A. rigida (Rudolphi, 1809) a junior synonym of A. marina Linnaeus, 1767 . Yamaguti (1935) was the ®rst to record this species from Japan, from the same host species ( L. litulon ) as the present specimens; his nematodes were somewhat larger, with spicules 2.5 mm long.