Occurrence of Ligula sp. plerocercoids in Ladigesocypris irideus (Ladiges, 1960) from South-Western Turkey: new host and new locality records

In this study, the occurrence of the tapeworm Ligula cestoda was reported from the body cavity of Anatolian ghizani Ladigesocypris irideus collected from Ula pond, Aegean Region of Turkey in November 2018. Six infected fish were observed having eighteen parasites in total with minimum and maximum lengths of 40.23 mm and 51.79 mm, respectively. The prevalence, mean intensity and abundance of infection were assessed as 42.85%, 3 and 1.28 respectively. This study reports the first record of this endoparasite from Anatolian ghizani, a species endemic to South-Western Turkey. This is also the first record of this parasite from Aegean Region that is an evidence of increasing spread of this group in non-infected parts of Turkey mainly through the forced biological invasion.