Five new species of dicyemid mesozoans (Dicyemida: dicyemidae) from two Australian cuttlefish species, with comments on dicyemid fauna composition

Abstract

Five new species of dicyemid mesozoans in two genera are described from two Australian cuttlefish species, Sepia apama Gray (giant Australian cuttlefish) and S. novaehollandiae Hoyle (nova cuttlefish): Dicyema coffinense n. sp. from S. apama collected from Coffin Bay, South Australia (SA), Australia; D. koinonum n. sp. from S. apama and S. novaehollandiae collected from Gulf St Vincent (GSV) and Spencer Gulf (SG), SA, Australia; D. multimegalum n. sp. from S. apama collected from Cronulla and North Bondi, New South Wales, Australia; D. vincentense n. sp. from S. novaehollandiae collected from GSV, SA, Australia; and Dicyemennea spencerense n. sp. from S. novaehollandiae and S. apama collected from SG, SA, Australia. Totals of 51 S. apama and 27 S. novaehollandiae individuals were examined, of which all except for four S. apama were infected by at least one dicyemid species. Dicyemid parasites were also observed in host individuals that were held in tanks for 2-3 months prior to examination, including nematogen-exclusive infections, leading to questions about persistence of dicyemids after host death and the mechanism responsible for the switch between a nematogen phase and a rhombogen phase. Variations in host size, calotte shape and collection locality are explored as predictors of differences in observed composition of the parasite fauna. In particular, dicyemid parasite fauna varied with host collection locality. As these parasites are highly host-species specific, their use as biological tags to assess cephalopod population structure using a combined morphological and molecular approach is discussed. This study increases the number of dicyemid species described from Australian cephalopods from five to ten, and from 117 to 122 species described worldwide.