Family DICLIDOPHORIDAE Cerfontaine, 1895

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• Choricotylidae Rees & Llewellyn, 1941.

Introduction

The Diclidophoridae, a family of polyopisthocotyleans, comprises approximately 40 genera and 120 described species, most of which have a symmetrical haptor bearing no more than four clamp pairs. Polycliphora species are exceptional because there are many clamp pairs. In some genera the clamps are on the ends of flexible peduncles (e.g. Diclidophora) but in others the clamps are termed sessile and are located directly on the haptor tissues (e.g. Heterobothrium). Like most Polyopisthocotylea, the majority of Diclidophoridae species use ther clamps to grab secondary gill lamellae and lie with the longitudinal axis of their body parallel with a primary gill lamella. Some species, however, attach to the flat surfaces of the gill arches (e.g. Choricotyle species), or migrate from the respiratory surfaces and embed their haptor in gill arch tissue (e.g. Heterobothrium elongatum) or in musculature inside the branchial or buccal cavities (e.g. H. okomotoi and Neoheterobothrium hirame respectively).

In Japan, some diclidophorid species can be problematic in the aqauculture of puffer fish (Whittington & Chisholm 2008).

General References

Whittington, I.D. & Chisholm, L.A. 2008. Diseases caused by Monogenea. pp. 683-816 in Eiras, J.C., Segner, H., Wahli, T. & Kapoor, B.G. (eds). Fish Diseases. New Hampshire : Science Publishers Vol. 2. [778]

Whittington, I.D. & Chisholm, L.A. 2008. Diseases caused by Monogenea. pp. 683-816 in Eiras, J.C., Segner, H., Wahli, T. & Kapoor, B.G. (eds). Fish Diseases. New Hampshire : Science Publishers Vol. 2.

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