Community Ecology of Metazoan Parasites in Two Species of Mystus from River Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Background And Objective: Fishes of the genus Mystus are the members of Bagridae family which occupy an important place in Godavari fishery. Two commonly available species, Mystus vittatus Bloch, 1800 and Mystus cavasius Hamilton, 1822 of River Godavari, Rajahmundry Andhra Pradesh serve as significant hosts for metazoa\n parasites. The present study was aimed to ascertain the population dynamics, community characteristics and the faunal similarity of the two bagridae fishes, Mystus vittatus (n = 116) and Mystus cavasius (n = 94) at both infra and component community level during the 2008-2009.

On a new species of Neoechinorhynchus Hamann, 1892 (Acanthocephala: Neoechinorhynchoidea Southwell et Macfie, 1925) from Indian threadfin fish, Leptomelanosoma indicum Shaw, 1804 from Visakhapatnam coast, Andhra Pradesh, India.

A new acanthocephalan of the genus Neoechinorhynchus Hamman, 1892 (Acanthocephala: Neoaechinorhynchoidea Southwell et Macfie, 1925) parasitic on threadfin fish, Leptomelanosoma indicum Shaw, 1804 from Visakhapatnam coast, Andhra Pradesh, India is described. Neoechinorhynchus indicus sp. nov is characterized by an enormous body size, structural characteristics of the hooks on proboscis, presence of body annulations, two guard cells, unequal lemnisci, sub-terminal genital pore and the host.