STUDIES ON PROTOZOAN PARASITES OF AUSTRALIAN FISHES .1. NEW SPECIES OF THE GENERA COCCOMYXA LEGER ET HESSE, 1907, ORTHOLINEA SHULMAN, 1962 AND KUDOA MEGLITSCH, 1947 (MYXOZOA, MYXOSPOREA)

Four new myxosporean species are described from marine fishes collected at the New South Wales coast of Australia. Coccomyxa meridiei sp. n. lives in the gall bladder of Herklosichthys castelnaui, and C. tenuiparies sp. n. infects the gall bladder of Heteroclinus whiteleggii. In both species, the polar filaments run at first straight down the polar capsule before forming threads beneath the capsule wall. Ortholinea australis sp. n. infects the hepatic ducts and gall bladder of Acanthopagrus australis and Rhabdosargus sarba. It forms large plasmodia up to 1 mm in size greatly distending the biliary ducts. Kudoa ciliatae sp. n. infects the smooth muscle layer of the intestine of Sillago ciliata. It has rather irregular shape of the spore, which is thin-shelled and thus easy to deform. Its ultrastructural features comply in general with features known in this genus. The surface of the polysporic plasmodium is raised into finger-like villosities. Examination of existing descriptions of Ortholinea species necessitated the relegation of Sphaerospora undulans Meglitsch, 1970 to the genus Ortholinea as O. undulans (Meglitsch, 1970) comb. n.