A MICROSPORIDIAN INFECTION OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT OF THE WINTER FLOUNDER, PSEUDOPLEURONECTES AMERICANUS

¹ The American Museum of Natural History, New York, N.Y.
² The U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

A microsporidian infection of the blackback or winter flounder, Pseudopleuronects americanus, has been investigated. It was first noted at Woods Hole. Massachusetts by Linton (1901) and may be identical with similar infections of European flounders reported by Hagenmüller (1899), who described the parasite as Nosema stephani. Woodcock (1904) transferred the species to Glugea, a genus erected by Thélohan (1891) to contain a parasite of the striated muscle in Cottus scorpio and Callionymus lyra, which he described as a new species, Glugea microspora. Gurley (1893) predicated that G. microspora is identical with Nosema anomala (Moniez, 1877), although he recognized Glugea as a valid genus, distinct from Nosema. In New England the infection is common in P. americanus. The incidence and intensity of infection in fishes of different sizes and from different geographical regions are reported together with an account of the resultant pathology. Attempts to obtain experimental infection of fishes have not been successful and the life-cycle of the parasite remains unknown.

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