Taxonomy and host-specificity of Gyrodactylus aideni n. sp. and G. pleuronecti (Monogenea: Gyrodactylidae) from Pseudopleuronectes americanus (Walbaum) in Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, Canada

Wild and cultured winter flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus (Walbaum) from Passamaquoddy Bay were surveyed for species of Gyrodactylus Nordmann, 1832. Two species were found: G. pleuronecti Cone, 1981 and G. aideni n. sp, both members of Malmberg’s ‘groenlandicus group’. Although the hard parts in the haptor are very similar in the two species, hamuli of G. aideni are consistently shorter than those of G. pleuronecti. The two species differed by 35 base pairs in the ITS 1, 5.8 and ITS 2 region. A BLAST search identified a variety of species of Gyrodactylus from marine fishes in the Atlantic Ocean as closest matches, indicating the ‘groenlandicus group’ is part of a major marine lineage within Gyrodactylus (sensu lato) that has successfully radiated among coastal percid, pleuronectid, cottid and anarhichadid fishes. Exposure experiments suggested that winter flounder is the primary host of both species of parasites and that three other pleuronectid species in the bay may potentially serve only as occasional transport hosts.