Discocotyle sagittata
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| Discocotyle sagittata | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Platyhelminthes |
| Class: | Monogenea |
| Order: | Mazocraeidea |
| Family: | Discocotylidae |
| Genus: | Discocotyle |
| Species: | D. sagittata
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| Binomial name | |
| Discocotyle sagittata (Leuckart, 1842)
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| Synonyms | |
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Discocotyle sagittata is a species of freshwater monogenean gill ectoparasites of Salmo and Oncorhynchus. Their lifestyle is characterised by a free-living larval stage that may be inhaled by a suitable freshwater fish host, after which they may attach upon expulsion over the gill onto a single gill filament. Upon reaching maturity, parasites can remain attached by a posterior opisthaptor with its 8 associated clamps (4 in 2 rows). Adults may reach a few millimetres in length. D. sagittata feeds on the blood of the gills via an anterior mouth part. Adults are hermaphrodite, and produce 3–14 eggs per day at 13 °C, a process which is temperature dependent.[1] Once produced, eggs drop to the riverbed surface and at 13 °C take 28 days to develop to hatching larval forms. Major parasite burden can result in damage to the host gill and anaemia from blood loss.
References
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