Saturday, January 4, 2020

New paper on the Digenean family Enenteridae

A recent-ish paper of mine was the culmination of around 3 years of work (so most of my PhD)

2019. DC Huston, SC Cutmore, TH Cribb. An identity crisis in the Indo-Pacific: molecular exploration of the genus Koseiria (Digenea: Enenteridae). International Journal for Parasitology 49 (12), 945-961.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2019.07.001

Much of my PhD focussed on the parasites of a unique group of herbivorous marine fishes, species of the family Kyphosidae (the drummers or sea-chubs). These fish are remarkable in that they eat almost entirely algae, and have lots of endosymbiotic organisms which help them with hindgut fermentation. Microbial fermentation has been poorly studied in fish, but I suspect it may have something to do with the unique parasite fauna of such fish species.

Anyway, the family Enenteridae needs a lot of work, and the genus Koseiria was a natural first choice to start the process. It turned out to be a quite complicated and challenging project, but resulted in a good paper, with a new genus, three new species and some new combinations. Next project for the family Enenteridae is the major lineage (the genus Enenterum)!

New paper on a new species of acanthocephalan

I’ve got another recent paper out, another collaboration with the eminent Emeritus Professor Lesley Warner (she publishes under Lesley Smale...