DIGENETIC AND ASPIDOGASTRID TREMATODES FROM MARINE FISHES OF CURASAO AND JAMAICAf F. M. NAHHAS and R. M. CABLE, Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana I. Acknowledgments This study was supported by National Sci-ence Foundation Grant G-14691, and was fa-cilitated by tlie cooperative assistance of per-sonnel of the Caraibisch Marien-Biologisch Instituut, Curasao, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Jamaica, W. I. Thanks are due especially to Dr. Ingvar Kristensen, Director of the laboratory in Curagao, and to Dr. Ivan Goodbody, Department of Zoology, Univer-sity College of the West Indies. We wish to express our appreciation also to Dr. J. E. Randall, University of Puerto Rico, for the identification of certain fishes and to Mrs. Mary Hanson Pritchard and Professor H. W. Manter of the University of Nebraska, Dr. Franklin Sogandares of Tulane University, and Dr. Allen Mcintosh of the Beltsville Parasitology Laboratory for the loan of speci-mens and many helpful suggestions. II. Introduction and Historical Review This paper concerns adult digenetic trem-atodes parasitizing marine fishes of Curasao and Jamaica and is a continuation of a study begun by one of us ( R. M. C. ) in Puerto Rico in 1951 and reported in a series of publications (Cable, 1954a, 1954b, 1956a, 1956b; LeZotte Jr., 1954; Siddiqi and Cable, I960). Results of that investigation indi-cated need for further study of larval and adult trematodes of shallow waters adjacent to Carribbean islands separated by deep water which could serve to isolate certain populations of intermediate and definitive host species. During 1961 the authors spent 7 months in the Caribbean region, 3 in Curagao and 4 in Jamaica. The purpose of the trip was twofold: (1) the examination of as many shallow-water fishes as possible with em-phasis on duplicate or congeneric species from the two localities, and ( 2 ) the study of cercariae and as many of their life his-tories as time and facilities permitted. Four papers reporting life cycles and larval trem-atodes have appeared (Cable, 1962; Cable and Nahhas, 1962, 1963; Cable, 1963). The work on digenetic trematodes in the Western Atlantic-Gulf-Caribbean region was pioneered by Linton who reported about 75 species from Woods Hole, Mass. (1898, 1900, 1901, 1940) and several additional ones from Beaufort, North Carolina ( 1905), Bermuda (1907) and Tortugas, Florida (I9IO). Those areas were restudied by a number of investigators and especially by Manter, whose papers appearing from 1925 to 1949 have made the region one of the better known so far as its trematode fauna is concerned. Other contributions have been made by Hanson ( 1950) who studied Bark-ker's collection from Bermuda, and by Sparks (1957, 1958, I960) who investigated the trematode fauna of the Bahama Islands and Grand Isle, Louisiana. Sogandares-Bernal (1959) compared the faunas of Bimini and the Panama Pacific and, in a series of papers in collaboration with others (Sogandares-Bernal and Hutton, 1959a, 1959b, 1959c; and Sogandares-Bernal and Sogandares, 1961 ), studied the helminth parasites from Tampa and Boca Ciega Bays, Florida, and the Atlantic Coast of Panama. In Cuba, Perez Vigueras (1940a, 1940b, 1955a, 1955b, 1955c, 1956, 1958) reported a number of trematodes from several vertebrates includ-ing marine fishes. Major studies on larval forms have been made by Cable (1956b) who reported 51 marine cercariae from Puerto Rico, and by Holliman (1961) who described 28 species from the Apalachee Bay area of Florida. Less comprehensive studies will be cited in the discussion of species. During this study, we examined 1527 t Based on a thesis of the first author, submitted in partial fulfillment of the re-quirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Purdue University, August, 1963.
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