Ecologia da comunidade de metazoários parasitos da abrótea, Urophycis mystaceus Ribeiro, 1903 (Osteichthyes, Phycidae), do litoral do estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Ramos Alves, DimitriLuis Luque, JoséRodrigues Paraguassú, Alinedos Santos Jorge, DanielaAlves Viñas, Ruth

Fifty-five specimens of Gulf hake, Urophycis mystaceus Ribeiro, 1903 collected from coastal zone of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (21-23º S, 41-45ºW), between May and August 2000, were necropsied to study their infracommunities of metazoan parasites. Sixteen species of metazoan parasites were collected. All fish were parasitized by one or more metazoan. Lecithochirium sp. and Cucullanus cirratus were the dominant species with highest prevalence and abundance. The parasitespecies of U. mystaceus showed the typical overdispersed pattern of distribution. Prevalence of Nybelinia sp. and Anisakis sp. were negatively correlated with the host total length. The mean diversity in the infracommunities of U. mystaceuswas H = 0.324 ± 0.331, with no correlation with the host total length. In the infracommunities of U. mystaceus significant association or covariation was not found. The parasite infracommunities of U. mystaceus were dominated by species with low prevalence values.