Preliminary analysis of parasitic copepod species richness among coastal fishes of tunisia

Abstract

A total of 44 species belonging to 20 families, representing a broad diversity of marine fishes, were identified and examined from Tunisian inshore fisheries sampling efforts. A parasitological study of these fish species revealed a great diversity of their parasitic copepoda. About 53% of examined species were infected by at least one species of parasitic copepod. We report 38 parasite species belonging to seven families of which 17 are new record for Tunisia. Moreover, the diversity of the copepods parasite varied with host characteristics. The specificity of the copepods varied widely as well. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.