First report of a member of the family Mermithidae parasitizing the sandhopper Orchestoidea tuberculata (Amphipoda, Talitridae) in Chile

Sara M Rodríguez; Marcela Figueroa; Guillermo D'Elía; Mario George-Nascimento

doi:10.1016/j.ijppaw.2023.10.011

First report of a member of the family Mermithidae parasitizing the sandhopper Orchestoidea tuberculata (Amphipoda, Talitridae) in Chile

Int J Parasitol Parasites Wildl. 2023 Oct 31:22:229-233. doi: 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2023.10.011. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Sara M Rodríguez^{1

2}, Marcela Figueroa³, Guillermo D'Elía⁴, Mario George-Nascimento^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
² Centro de Investigación en Recursos Naturales y Sustentabilidad (CIRENYS), Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins, Avenida Viel 1497, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
³ Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile. Isla Teja s/n, Valdivia, Chile.
⁴ Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile.
⁵ Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ambientes Sustentables (CIBAS), Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Concepción, Chile.

Abstract

Specimens of the sandhopper Orchestoidea tuberculata (Amphipoda; Talitridae) collected from sandy beaches in south-central Chile, were found to be parasitized by juvenile mermithids, constituting the first record of a mermithid infecting a marine amphipod in Chile. A morphological description of juveniles is provided. Sequence analyses based on mitochondrial COI and nuclear 18S rDNA of the mermithids showed extremely low genetic variation. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that the mermithid is more closely related to Hexamermis agrotis, which parasitize Coleoptera, than to Thaumamermis zealandica, which parasitizes New Zealand confamilial talitrid amphipods.

Keywords: 18S; COI; Chile; Mermithids; Semiterrestrial amphipods.