Current state of knowledge on fishhelminths from cenotes in theYucatán Peninsula: 90 yearsof research
Keywords:
Diversity, cenotes, fish, helminth parasites, YucatánAbstract
Cenotes (sinkholes) are the most distinctive karstic aquatic ecosystems in the Yucatán Peninsula; their diversity includes several endemic vertebrate and invertebrate species, including fish and their parasites. The first record of fish helminths from cenotes was published in 1936; until 2025, 61 species of fish parasites have been recorded from five taxonomic groups: trematodes, monogeneans, cestodes, acanthocephalans, and nematodes. Given that these records and the existing information are scattered and they have not been compiled in a unified source, this work gathered and analyzed the available information to describe diversity patterns and propose future directions in the study of the richness of helminth parasites of fish in cenotes. Out of the 61 species collected, 26 were found in Yucatán and Quintana Roo states, whereas 30 only in the Yucatán, and five exclusively in Quintana Roo. Trematodes are the dominant group of fish parasites in terms of the number of species (25), most of them reported as metacercariae, followed by monogeneans (14), nematodes (10), cestodes (8), and acanthocephalans represented by five species. Parasitic helminths were collected from 20 host species in 50 cenotes across the peninsula. The pale catfish, Rhamdia guatemalensis is the host species with the highest parasite species richness (21), while just one species was reported for the hosts Typhliasina pearsei, Thorichthys aureus, Trichromis salvini y Mayaheros mayorum.
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