Gastrocotylidae is a family of
polyopisthocotylean
monogenea
Monogeneans are a group of ectoparasitic flatworms commonly found on the skin, gills, or fins of fish. They have a direct lifecycle and do not require an intermediate host. Adults are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female reprod ...
ns.
[WoRMS (2019). Gastrocotylidae Price, 1943. Accessed at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=119243 on 2019-02-15] All the
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
in this family are parasitic on
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
.
Systematics
The gastrocotylids are known by their rather very diffuse distribution, and a marqued preference for
scombroid fishes and
carangid
The Carangidae are a family of ray-finned fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, runners, and scads. It is the largest of the six families included within the order Carangiformes. Some authorities classify it as the only famil ...
s.
The Gastrocotylidae Price, 1943 was erected to separate ''
Gastrocotyle'' and its allies.,
named and described by reference to a diagram of the clamp type alone
Sproston agreed on the importance of the difference in clamp structure in
microcotylids, however, she reduced the Gastrocotylidae to sub-family status included in
Microcotylidae Taschenberg, 1879.
Palombi did not recognize Sproston's subfamily Gastrocotylinae and placed it in the subfamily Microcotylinae Monticelli, 1892 then in his own family Arreptocotylidae Palombi, 1949. This arrangement was refuted, and The Gastrocotylidae was brought back from the synonymy of Sproston in order to accommodate the subfamilies Gastrocotylinae Sproston, 1946 and Vallisiinae Price, 1943 and others which may later be adjudged similar.
Price's name was employed for the family as the latest was recognizable, and ''
Gastrocotyle'' Van Beneden & Hesse, 1863 was designated the type genus.
Dawes and Chauhan also considered earlier Gastrocotylidaeas a valid and useful family. The latest valid genus included within this family is ''
Allogastrocotyle'' Nasir & Fuentes Zambrano, 1984, erected by Nasir & Fuentes Zambrano, 1984 to accommodate ''Allogastrocotyle bivaginalis'' Nasir & Fuentes Zambrano, 1984, from the gills of ''Trachurus lathami'' off Venezuela.
[Nasir, P. & Fuentes, J.L. (1983) Algunos trematodos monogeneticos Venezolanos. Revista de Parasitologia, 44, 335-380.]
Subfamilies
According to Lebedev (1986)
[Lebedev, B.I. Monogenea: suborder Gastrocotylinea. Leningrad, USSR; Nauka (1986) 200pp.(In Russian)] and the
World Register of Marine Species
The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms.
Content
The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scientific specialist ...
,
the family includes 2 subfamilies:
*
Gastrocotylinae Sproston, 1946 [Sproston, N. G. (1946). A synopsis of the monogenetic trematodes. The Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, 25(4), 185-600.] including ''
Pseudaxine''.
* Gastrocotyloidinae
Lebedev, 1984
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5032841
Polyopisthocotylea
Platyhelminthes families