Ausência da fauna ectoparasitária do lambari Psalidodon aff. fasciatus (Cuvier, 1819) das furnas do Parque Estadual de Vila Velha

Abstract

The ecological relationship between host-parasite is extremely important for behavioral, ecological and evolutionary studies, the study of neotropical fish is permeated by evolutionary biology through investigations of the evolutionary history of species. Fish, in general, have high rates of parasitism and high specificity of parasites. The monogeneans represent a large group of ectoparasites of fish gills and the present study seeks to investigate the ectoparasitic fauna of the lambari Psalidodon aff. fasciatus found in the Vila Velha State Park in Furna 2. A total of 123 specimens of the fish Psalidodon aff. fasciatus were collected in the period of 11 months in order to carry out an investigative research on its ectoparasitic fauna. The gills of individuals were screened and analyzed, but the absence of monogeneans presented an unusual data in natural communities, due to this fact, the present study focused on the discussion of possible hypotheses for the absence of monogeneans.