Krill Nyctiphanes simplex gonad affection associated with acute-intensity phyllobothriid plerocercoid infection

This is the first acute-intensity record of helminths parasitizing the subtropical krill Nyctiphanes simplex Hansen, 1911. We briefly describe the pathology of infection of Phyllobothriidae gen. sp. plerocercoids parasitizing N. simplex in the Gulf of California . Infection occurred with a very low prevalence ( P = 0.06%, n = 1563 specimens), although acute-intensity exceeded several hundred plerocercoids crowding the hemocoel in one female host. Nyctiphanes simplex showed inflammatory response of hemocyte-based infiltration, nodule formation, and presumptive melanization. Remarkably, cestodes invade and supplant the gonad, causing atretic oocytes and severe tissue destruction in the gonad likely leading to castration and cell death in connective tissue of the infected organs suggesting that acute-intensity infection exceeds the krill’s reaction capacity. Thus, Phyllobothriidae gen. sp. negatively affects the host by depleting its fitness, leading to total castration to prevent/block host reproduction.