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Digenean trematode species in the cockle Cerastoderma edule: identification key and distribution along the north-eastern Atlantic shoreline

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2009

Xavier de Montaudouin*
Affiliation:
Université de Bordeaux, UMR EPOC 5805, Station Marine d'Arcachon, 2 rue du Pr Jolyet, F-33120 Arcachon, France
David W. Thieltges
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
Mériame Gam
Affiliation:
Université Hassan II Aïn Chock, Faculté des Sciences Aïn Chock, Départment de Biologie, Km 8 Route El Jadida, BP 5366 Maârif, 20100 CasablancaMorocco
Manuela Krakau
Affiliation:
Foundation Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Wadden Sea Station Sylt, Hafenstraße 43, 25992 List/Sylt, Germany
Suzana Pina
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Aquatic Zoology, Department of Aquatic Production, ICBAS, Abel Salazar Institute for Biomedical SciencesLg. Prof. Abel Salazar 2, 4009-003 Porto, Portugal
Hocein Bazairi
Affiliation:
Université Hassan II Aïn Chock, Faculté des Sciences Aïn Chock, Départment de Biologie, Km 8 Route El Jadida, BP 5366 Maârif, 20100 CasablancaMorocco
Laurent Dabouineau
Affiliation:
Campus de la Tour d'Auvergne BP 90431, Université UCO Bretagne Nord, 22 204 Guingamp, France
Fernanda Russell-Pinto
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Aquatic Zoology, Department of Aquatic Production, ICBAS, Abel Salazar Institute for Biomedical SciencesLg. Prof. Abel Salazar 2, 4009-003 Porto, Portugal
K. Thomas Jensen
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Ecology, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, Finlandsgade 14, DK-8200 Aarhus, Denmark
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: X. de Montaudouin, Université de Bordeaux, UMR EPOC 5805, Station Marine d'Arcachon 2 rue du Pr Jolyet, F-33120 Arcachon, France email: x.de-montaudouin@epoc.u-bordeaux1.fr
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Abstract

We describe the digenean fauna of one of the dominant intertidal hosts, the common cockle Cerastoderma edule, in terms of biomass, off north-eastern Atlantic shores. Using published and unpublished literature we have prepared an identification key and provide an up-date of the large-scale distributional patterns of digenean species of the common cockle. At least sixteen digenean species, belonging to seven families, use cockles as intermediate host. Among these species two utilize cockles as first intermediate host only, whereas two species utilize cockles as both first and second intermediate host. The remaining eleven species have cockles as their second intermediate host. Water birds and fish are the definitive hosts to twelve and four species, respectively.

Cockles are infected with digeneans along the latitudinal gradient from southern Morocco to the western region of the Barents Sea often with high infection levels. Whereas some of these digenean species occur along most of the latitudinal gradient others show a more restricted northern or southern distribution mostly caused by an underlying latitudinal gradient of host species.

Knowledge of digenean species and their large-scale distribution pattern may serve as a baseline for future studies dealing with the effects of climate change on parasite–host systems. For such studies the cockle and its digenean community could be an ideal model system.

Information

Type
Review
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2009
Figure 0

Fig. 1. Locations from where we found data on parasites in cockles Cerastoderma edule.

Figure 1

Table 1. List of digenean species utilizing the cockle Cerastoderma edule as their first and/or second intermediate host, other hosts of the life cycle, and references to papers describing their anatomy.

Figure 2

Fig. 2. Photographs of digenean larvae as they can be observed through a dissection microscope with transmitted light, within cockle tissues squeezed between two glass slides.

Figure 3

Fig. 3. In situ location of the parasites infecting Cerastoderma edule. When mature, Gymnophallus choledochus, Bucephalus minimus and Monorchis parvus can invade most tissues.

Figure 4

Fig. 4. [See next page for Figure 4] Distribution of digenean species along the distribution of their cockle Cerastoderma edule host, in the north-eastern Atlantic. P, maximum mean parasite prevalence observed; A, maximum mean parasite abundance observed. Numbers correspond to the following references: 1. Pelseneer, 1906; 2. Vaullegard, 1894; 3. Lebour, 1911; 4. James & Bowers, 1967; 5. James et al., 1977; 6. Bowers, 1969; 7. Deltreil & His, 1972; 8. Desclaux et al., 2002; 9. Baudrimont et al., 2006; 10. Sauriau, 1992; 11. de Montaudouin et al., 2000; 12. Russell-Pinto et al., 2006; 13. Thieltges & Reise, 2006; 14. Gam et al., 2008; 15. de Montaudouin, unpublished; 16. Hancock & Urquart, 1965; 17. Boyden, 1971; 18. Malek, 2001; 19. Sannia & James, 1978; 20. Sannia et al., 1978; 21. Jonsson & André, 1992; 22. Thieltges et al., 2006; 23. Thieltges, 2006; 24. Lauckner, 1971; 25. Jonstone, 1904 (in Lebour, 1911); 26. Bowers & James, 1967; 27. Bowers et al., 1990; 28. Goater, 1993; 29. Krakau et al., 2006; 30. Lauckner, 1984; 31. Russell-Pinto, 1990; 32. Russell-Pinto & Bartoli, 1992; 33. Desclaux et al., 2004; 34. Wegeberg & Jensen, 1999; 35. Wegeberg & Jensen, 2003; 36. de Montaudouin et al., 2005; 37. Desclaux et al., 2006; 38. Kesting et al., 1996; 39. Loos-Frank, 1971; 40. Loos-Frank, 1969; 41. Thieltges & Reise, 2007; 42. Lassalle et al., 2007; 43. Goater, 1995; 44. Reimer, 1970; 45. Bazairi, unpublished; 46. Dang, unpublished 47. Bartoli et al., 2000; 48. Krakau, unpublished; 49. Jensen, unpublished.