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- Title
Life history told by a whale-louse: a possible interaction of a southern right whale <italic>Eubalaena australis</italic> calf with humpback whales <italic>Megaptera novaeangliae</italic>.
- Authors
Iwasa-Arai, Tammy; Siciliano, Salvatore; Serejo, Cristiana S.; Rodríguez-Rey, Ghennie T.
- Abstract
Southern right whales (<italic>Eubalaena australis</italic>) are known to host three species of whale-lice, <italic>Cyamus gracilis</italic>, <italic>Cyamus ovalis</italic> and <italic>Cyamus erraticus</italic>. Such cyamids usually are generalists in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) and host-specific in baleen whales (Cetacea: Mysticeti), and because they have no free-swimming stage, transmission only occurs by contact between whales. One southern right whale stranded at the southeastern coast of Brazil was found parasitized by a different species of cyamid. Over 300 specimens were collected and the only species identified based on morphological and molecular data was <italic>Cyamus boopis</italic>, a typical ectoparasite of humpback whales (<italic>Megaptera novaeangliae</italic>). This finding is the first record of <italic>C. boopis</italic> on the southern right whale. Both <italic>E. australis</italic> and <italic>M. novaeangliae</italic> are found in Brazilian waters and the presence of humpback’s whale-louse together with the lack of the three specific parasites of right whales suggest an interspecific interaction between these whales based on the parasite’s biology.
- Subjects
CYAMIDAE; AMPHIPODA; BALEEN whales; AQUATIC animals; AQUATIC biology
- Publication
Helgoland Marine Research, 2017, Vol 71, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1438-387X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/s10152-017-0486-y