caa a22 4500 606227857 CHVBK 20210128101200.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150801xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10641-015-0415-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10641-015-0415-3 Low susceptibility of invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans to ectoparasitic Neobenedenia in the eastern Caribbean [Elektronische Daten] [Starlene Loerch, Amber McCammon, Paul Sikkel] Since its introduction to the tropical western Atlantic in the 1980s, the Indo-Pacific lionfish, Pterois volitans, has become one of the most devastating species invasions in the marine environment. It remains unclear whether release from parasitism has played a role in its success. The capsalid monogenean Neobenedenia pargueraensis is a common Caribbean ectoparasite with a broad host range that, in high numbers, can kill hosts. However, previous research found that lionfish collected from the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands were not parasitized by N. pargueraensis. Possible explanations for this are that 1) lionfish do not occupy habitat where infective stages are present; and 2) lionfish are not susceptible to this parasite. The goal of this project was to determine the susceptibility of lionfish to N. pargueraensis. Experiments were conducted in spring and summer of 2012 and 2013 on St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Lionfish (n = 24) and control blue tang, Acanthurus coeruleus (n = 19) were caught from nearby shallow reefs, treated to remove pre-existing ectoparasites, and exposed to high concentrations of N. pargueraensis for 14days. Despite exposure to high concentrations of parasites, only one of 24 lionfish was parasitized, and only one individual parasite was found on the infected fish. In contrast, all blue tang were infected with an average of ten parasites per fish. These results suggest that invasive lionfish are not highly susceptible to N. pargueraensis, which may contribute to their successful invasion of the Caribbean. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2015 Invasive species nationallicence Monogenea nationallicence Capsalid nationallicence Parasite nationallicence Scorpaenidae nationallicence Loerch Starlene Department of Biological Sciences and Environmental Sciences Program, Arkansas State University, 72467, State University, AR, USA aut McCammon Amber Department of Biological Sciences and Environmental Sciences Program, Arkansas State University, 72467, State University, AR, USA aut Sikkel Paul Department of Biological Sciences and Environmental Sciences Program, Arkansas State University, 72467, State University, AR, USA aut Environmental Biology of Fishes Springer Netherlands 98/8(2015-08-01), 1979-1985 0378-1909 98:8<1979 2015 98 10641 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-015-0415-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-015-0415-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Loerch Starlene Department of Biological Sciences and Environmental Sciences Program, Arkansas State University, 72467, State University, AR, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- McCammon Amber Department of Biological Sciences and Environmental Sciences Program, Arkansas State University, 72467, State University, AR, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sikkel Paul Department of Biological Sciences and Environmental Sciences Program, Arkansas State University, 72467, State University, AR, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Environmental Biology of Fishes Springer Netherlands 98/8(2015-08-01), 1979-1985 0378-1909 98:8<1979 2015 98 10641