The study of fish parasites in the Philippines has a long history, dating back at least to the work of de Blainville (1822), who reported on parasitic copepods of marine fishes collected at Manila (see Arthur 1996). However, sustained efforts to study these organisms are more recent, dating from the work of M.A. Tubangui and colleagues at the Bureau of Science in Manila from the late 1920s through the 1940s, and by C.C. Velasquez and her students at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, from the early 1950s to the 1980s, and continued since 1985 by the staff of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Quezon City.
The need for a checklist of the parasites of Philippine fishes (and for the entire Southeast Asian Region) was recognized during work conducted by the authors at the BFAR. In particular, the need for readily accessible information on fish parasites, and their host and geographic distributions, as well as on pathogens of other aquatic organisms, was repeatedly emphasized during the various workshops on fish health and quarantine sponsored by the International Development Research Centre (Canada) during the 1980s, and subsequently, at the various Symposia on Diseases in Asian Aquaculture, organized by the Fish Health Section of the Asian Fisheries Society.
This is the first complete listing of the parasites reported from the fishes of the Philippines, or for that matter, of any of the Southeast Asian countries. Several important previous works should be mentioned. These include the summaries of the helminths of Philippine animals by Tubangui (1933b, 1947) and the listings of fish helminths or digeneans given by Velasquez (1974, 1977a, 1986a). Also to be mentioned are the monograph Digenetic Trematodes of Philippine Fishes by C.C. Velasquez (1975a), and the book Parasites and Diseases of Fish Cultured in the Tropics by Z. Kabata (1985). The former is the only taxonomic monograph dealing with the fish parasites of Southeast Asia, while the latter provides an excellent overview of the diseases and parasites of fishes cultured in the region up to the early 1980s. The fish health literature for Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, was abstracted up to 1990 by members of the Fish Health Section (Arthur 1992).
In compiling this checklist, we have attempted to list only original reports appearing in the literature for each species. A special problem was posed by the many papers of C.C. Velasquez which include summaries of the helminths of Philippine fishes. Four of these papers (Velasquez 1966, 1974, 1977a, 1986a) include tables which are indicated to present new host and/or locality records. However, all four tables contain identical information; and we have thus catalogued only records contained in the first published (Table 1 of Velasquez 1966). Many of the publications of Velasquez also contain, more generalized tables listing the Digenea reported from Philippine fishes (Velasquez 1974, 1977a, 1986a), fish helminths of significance to human health (Velasquez 1966, 1974, 1976a, 1977a, 1980b, 1986a) and of importance to aquaculture (Velasquez 1986a). Velasquez (1966) is based on original information and includes collection localities, while tables contained in subsequent papers apparently draw on information contained in Velasquez (1966), the checklist of Tubangui (1947), and more recent data, both published and unpublished, generally without providing specific localities and/or citation of the sources used. For tables and appendices contained in her review papers published after 1966, we have catalogued only those records involving new host listings. In the text of these later review papers, Velasquez often repeated verbatim and without citation, information contained in earlier papers, In these instances, we have treated each unreferenced parasite record as a new report.
In preparing his book Parasites and Diseases of Fish Cultured in the Tropics, Kabata (1985) used both published and unpublished sources of information. In cataloguing this work, we have included only those listings for which we could find no pre-existing published record.
The Parasite-Host List is a taxonomically arranged listing of all parasites reported from Philippine fishes. The higher classification used is as follows: for the Protista and Myxozoa, that of Lorn and Dyková (1992); for the Trematoda, that of Gibson (1996); for the Monogenea, that of Boeger and Kritsky (1993); for the Cestoidea, that of Khalil et al. (1994); for the Nematoda, that of Anderson et al. (1974–1983) and Anderson (1992); for the Acanthocephala, that of Amin (1985, 1987); for the Copepoda and Branchiura, that of Kabata (1979, 1988); for the Isopoda, that of Rafi (1988); and for the Mollusca and Hirudinea, that used by McDonald and Margolis (1995). Readers are also referred to the recent treatments of Beverley-Burton (1984) for the Monogenea, Schmidt (1986) for the Cestoidea and of Arai (1989) for the Acanthocephala.
The Parasite-Host List contains information for all parasite species reported from Philippine fishes. For each parasite, the currently recognized scientific name, including authors and dates, and any synonyms under which original records appeared are given. This is followed by the environment in which the parasite normally completes its life cycle, indicated as fresh water (F), brackish water (B) or marine (M). As the life cycles of Philippine fish parasites are for the most part unknown, this information is drawn primarily from non-Philippine sources or from information on collection locality and/or host biology. The Location gives the site of infection where the parasite is normally found in or on the host. Under Hosts, the hosts are listed alphabetically by their currently recognized scientific names. In parentheses, following each host name, are given the numbers for the references (Records) reporting the parasite from the host in question. The distribution (Dist.) provides a summary of the reported distribution of the parasite in the Philippines, and is given alphabetically by island. Unless otherwise indicated by the author(s), fishes examined for parasites which were obtained from local markets are considered to have originated from local waters. Under Records are given the numbered individual references containing the parasite records, each followed by the geographic locality(ies) to which they pertain. Under Remarks are given comments on various aspects, such as synonymies, pathogenicity, and introductions. More specific notations on individual records are given as footnotes.
The Host-Parasite List is organized phylogenetically following the classification of fishes given by Eschmeyer (1990), with the genera and species within individual families arranged alphabetically. Information on the scientific and common names, status and environment of Philippine fishes was obtained mainly from the species data base of FishBase 96 (Froese and Pauly 1996). Scientific names not found in FishBase 96 were verified using Herre (1953) and Eschmeyer et al. (1996). Additional sources consulted for local common names include Herre and Umali (1948), Herre (1953) and Velasquez (1972, 1975a). For each host, the following information is given: the currently recognized scientific name, including species author(s), followed by any synonyms under which original parasite records were made, the FishBase 96 recognized English common name, the local common name(s)1 (given in Tagalog, unless otherwise indicated), and the host's Status in the Philippines (native or exotic), and its typical Environment (fresh water, brackish water, marine). This is followed by a listing of the parasites reported for the host in question, arranged by higher taxon and listed alphabetically. Following each parasite name, the distribution is summarized by island. Records which involve possible parasite misidentifications are indicated by a question mark preceding the parasite's name. Finally, where appropriate, Remarks and footnotes are included to provide information on such topics as host distribution and introductions, possible erroneous records and additional local common names.
Under References are listed all the papers containing the records, as well as other works cited in the text. A short Supplementary References lists some additional articles dealing with Philippine fisheries parasitology but not containing any original reports. A Parasite Index and a Host Index complete the volume.
To date, a total of 201 named species of parasites (1 Apicomplexa, 16 Ciliophora, 2 Mastigophora, 1 Microspora, 9 Myxozoa, 90 Trematoda, 22 Monogenea, 6 Cestoda, 20 Nematoda, 5 Acanthocephala, 1 Mollusca, 2 Branchiura, 21 Copepoda and 5 Isopoda) have been reported from Philippine fishes. However, the faunas of only a few, freshwater cultured species, the majority of them exotics such as tilapias and carp, are well known. For the vast majority of native freshwater and marine fishes, the parasite faunas remain poorly known or completely unstudied. Contained in this checklist are records for parasites from a total of 172 fish species and one hybrid form occurring in Philippine natural waters, and from an additional 17 species of exotic aquarium fish examined in the Philippines but not reported to occur in natural waters. As FishBase 96 (Froese and Pauly 1996) lists a total of 2032 species of fish occurring in the country (1834 marine, 138 fresh water, 60 euryhaline), there remains many years of basic systematic and survey work to be conducted before the parasite fauna of Philippine fishes will be thoroughly documented.
We would like to thank a number of colleagues who kindly provided critical comments on sections of the manuscript, key references, and/or taxonomic advice. These include J. Lorn (Protista), T.E. McDonald (Monogenea, Isopoda), S.L. Lim (Monogenea), D.I. Gibson and R.A. Bray (Digenea), L. Margolis and F. Moravec (Nematoda) and Z. Kabata and G. Boxshall (Crustacea). Answers to questions on host taxonomy and distribution were kindly provided by E. Capuli, R. Froese, D.R. Bellwood and D. Siebert. The assistance of Guy Michaud and the staff of the library at the Maurice Lamontagne Institute in conducting literature searches and obtaining references is gratefully acknowledged. Susan Arthur kindly assisted in compiling the host-parasite list and indices, and in proof reading the manuscript. This work was begun under support: from the International Development Research Centre (Canada) to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Quezon City, through the BFAR/IDRC Fish Health Project, and was completed while the senior author was on secondment from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Canada) to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. We especially thank Dr. R. P. Subasinghe, FAO, for arranging facilities for the senior author and publication of this volume. We also thank Miss Emanuela D'Antoni for the cover design.
J.Richard Arthur
Rome, Italy
Susan Lumanlan-Mayo
Quezon City, Philippines
