Monogenoidea Communities Differ Between Male Morphotypes of Bluegill Sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus).

Purpose: Bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) are a North American sport fish that exhibit two different male morphotypes. Alpha-males are large, colorful, territorial, and have significant parental investment, while β-males are small, drab, and have two reproductive phenotypes, neither of which involves parental investment. Due to the two different reproductive strategies, the level of interaction between congenerics varies, which may impact parasites that are spread via close contact, such as Monogenoidea that infect the gills.

Monogenean body size, but not reproduction, increases with infracommunity density.

Body size reveals a plethora of life-history, ecological, and evolutionary information about a species. It plays a critical role in success or failure during competitive, reproductive, or predator-prey interactions. Typically, there is a negative relationship between body size and population density in natural populations and communities.