Ultrastructural studies of Henneguya rhamdia n. sp. (Myxozoa) a parasite from the Amazon teleost fish, Rhamdia quelen (Pimelodidae)

Abstract

Henneguya rhamdia n. sp. is described in the gill filaments of the teleost fish Rhamdia quelen, collected from the Peixe Boi River, State of Pará, Brazil. This myxosporean produced spherical to ellipsoidal plasmodia, up to 300 microm in diameter, which contained developmental stages, including spores. Several dense bodies up to 2 microm in diameter were observed among the spores. The spore body was ellipsoidal (13.1 microm in length, 5.2 microm in width, and 2.5 microm in thickness) and each of the two valves presented a tapering tail (36.9 microm in length). These valves surrounded the binucleated sporoplasm cell and two equal ellipsoidal polar capsules (4.7 x 1.1 microm), which contained 10-11 (rarely 12) polar filament coils. The sporoplasm contained sporoplasmosomes with a laterally eccentric dense structure with a half-crescent section. Based on the data obtained by electron microscopy and on the host specificity, the spores differed from previously described Henneguya species, mainly in their shape and size, number and arrangement of the polar filament coils, and sporoplasmosome morphology.