The Biodiversity of Metazoan Parasites of Coral Reef Fishes of the Central and Eastern Indo-Pacific
Résumé
The Central and Eastern Indo-Pacific is a vast geographical region, ranging from southern Japan (north), French Polynesia (east), Great Barrier Reef (south), and Coral Triangle (west); it contains the world’s best-developed and richest coral reefs which support an extraordinary richness of fishes. While there is extensive understanding of the richness and biogeography of these fishes, far less is known of their parasites. Here we review what is currently known for metazoan parasites, focusing on copepods and trematodes, infecting fishes of this region. Most of the research has been highly concentrated geographically, and just a small portion of the parasitic fauna has been characterized. Both copepods and trematodes in this region are strongly specific to their hosts, and most fish species have not yet been surveyed thoroughly, if at all, for their parasites. Ultimately, fish parasite richness in the region will far exceed that of their hosts. Reliable identification of fish parasites faces many problems, and molecular approaches are becoming increasingly important, especially for certain cases (e.g., cryptic species, larval stages). Critical “next steps” for improving our understanding of the parasitic taxonomy and ecology are to examine more fish species, to investigate under-sampled ecoregions, and to expand the molecular characterization.