Coral Reef Fish Harbor An Unexpectedly High Biodiversity Of Parasites

Science Daily — IRD researchers showed that Epinephilus maculates, a fairly abundant species of grouper off New Caledonia, was parasitized by 12 species of microscopic monogenean worms. This diversity of parasites has just been confirmed also in the malabar grouper, Epinephilus malabaricus, another the coral reef species. If such a level of parasite diversity prevails in all coral-reef fish, tens of thousands of parasite species are in this ecosystem waiting to be discovered.

In the same way as the tropical rainforest, the coral reefs of warm seas are among the richest ecosystems of the world in terms of their biodiversity. In fact the best conserved areas harbour over 700 species of coral, 600 species of mollusc and nearly 4000 species of fish. These fish have been well studied by reef biodiversity specialists over the past few years, yet still little is known about their parasites. Two studies conducted by IRD researchers of Noumea have brought out evidence of this parasite species richness in two grouper species of the New Caledonian coral reef.

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