Helminth Infracommunity of Haemulon Aurolineatum Cuvier, 1830 (Haemulidae) from the Gulf of Cariaco, Venezuela

This study describes the infracommunity of metazoan parasites from 100 Haemulon aurolineatum (Haemulidae) from the Gulf of Cariaco, Venezuela. The fish were sampled at random from the catch of artisanal fishermen from September, 2002 to August 2003. All fish were necropsied and 98% of them were infected with at least one of the 11 helminths reported herein. A total of 1522 parasites individuals were found, one belonging to Monogenea, Choricotyle aspinachorda, nine species of trematodes: Brachadena pyriformis, Diplangus paxillus, Lasiocotus longavatus, Genolopa ampullacea, Leodera decora, Apocreadium foliatum, Haliotrema spp., Prolecithochirium spp, one Hemiurid species. and one nematode, Cucullanus tripapillatus. Prevalence, mean intensity, abundance, and species richness were calculated for each species of the infracommunity. Brillouin's Diversity was found at 3.326 bits/ind. Haliotrema spp. was the dominant trematode species, Length of male and female fish was significantly different (P<0.01). Neither length nor sex of fish influenced the occurrence of any helminth species during the year. Non parametric correlation was analyzed to find the interrelationship of helminth species reported herein, and only C. tripapillatus and Prolecithochirium spp showed significant positive relationship (P<0.001).