Lamellodiscus (Monogenea: Diplectanidae) Parasites of Dentex macrophthalmus (Teleostei: Sparidae) From the North Atlantic Coast of Africa, With a Redescription of L. dentexi Aljoshkina, 1984, and Description of Three New Species

Lamellodiscus dentexi Aljoshkina, 1984, a gill parasite of Dentex macrophthalmus (Bloch), is redescribed based on new material from the northwest coast of Africa (Senegal and Morocco). Three new species of Lamellodiscus Johnston et Tiegs, 1922 from D. macrophthalmus are described, Lamellodiscus toguebayei sp. n., L. vicinus sp. n., and L. triacies sp. n., all belonging to the “ignoratus” group. They can be distinguished from all other species of this group by the size and shape of male copulatory organ and sclerotised parts of the haptor. Considering the peculiar morphology of the male copulatory organ (long and thin tube) we propose to put together L. dentexi, L. virgula Euzet et Oliver, 1967 and L. obeliae Oliver, 1973 to form the “elongatus” type within the “elegans” group.

Lamellodiscus Johnston et tiegs, 1922 (Monogenea:Diplectanidae) is currently composed of 52 described spe- cies (Euzet and oliver 1967, Kritsky et al. 2000, amine and Euzet 2005, amine et al. 2006, 2007, Neifar 2008, Boudaya et al. 2009, Justine and Briand 2010) that have been mainly studied in sparids. Sparid fishes consist of approximately 115 species in 33 genera that are broadly distributed in tropical and temperate coastal waters (Nel- son 2006). Diplectanids often show strict host-specificity (oliver 1992); thus, it is a safe prediction that many other species of Lamellodiscus are still undescribed (Poulin and Mouillot 2005, Justine 2007).

Along the atlantic coast of africa, 29 species of spari-dae are reported (Quéro et al. 1990) on which only seven Lamellodiscus species have been described: L. dentexi aljoshkina, 1984 from the large-eye dentex Dentex mac- rophthalmus (Bloch) by aljoshkina (1984); L. elegans Bychowsky, 1957, L. ergensi Euzet et oliver, 1966 and L. ignoratus Palombi, 1949 reported from the white sea- bream Diplodus sargus cadenati de la Paz, Bauchot et Daget by Justine (1985); and L. sarculus and L. sigillatus from Pagrus caeruleostictus (Valenciennes) and L. rastel-lus from Pagrus auriga (Valenciennes) described by Nei-far et al. (2004).

Collections of D. macrophthalmus from the coast of senegal near Dakar during February 2009, and from off rabat, Morocco during april 2009, revealed, in addition to L. dentexi, three species of Lamellodiscus that are new to science. the purpose of this paper is to provide a redescription of L. dentexi and descriptions of three new species.