Overview of South African Dendromonocotyle (Monogenea : Monocotylidae) with descriptions of 2 new species from stingrays (Dasyatidae) kept in public aquaria

Abstract

Two new species, Dendromonocotyle citrosa n. sp. off Dasyatis chrysonota (Smith) from Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town and off Himantura gerrardi (Gray) from uShaka Sea World in Durban and D. ukuthena n. sp. off H. gerrardi and H. uarnak (Forsskål) also from uShaka Sea World in Durban, are described. These can be distinguished from previously described Dendromonocotyle species by the morphology of the distal portion of the male copulatory organ and the proximal part of the vagina. Vaginal morphology is proposed as an important diagnostic character for species in the genus. Dendromonocotyle colorni Chisholm, Whittington & Kearn, 2001 which was originally recorded from H. uarnak in Israel, was discovered on H. uarnak sympatrically with D. ukuthena n. sp. and with D. citrosa n. sp. and D. ukuthena n. sp. off H. gerrardi. Minor differences in the number of papillary sclerites, the presence of septal tripartite sclerites and in the number of eyespots were seen between D. colorni collected from H. uarnak and H. gerrardi from uShaka Sea World and those originally described off H. uarnak from Israel. We demonstrate that the position of the marginal hooklets can be used to determine the orientation of the haptor of all representative Dendromonocotyle species with or without hamuli. We conclude that Dendromonocotyle species may not be as host-specific as previously believed and that minor differences in morphology are host or geographically induced.