Parasite communities of snowy grouper Hyporthodus niphobles (Gilbert & Starks, 1897) (Perciformes: Serranidae) fromthe marine coast of Peru

Background: Snowy grouper Hyporthodus niphobles (Gilbert & Starks, 1897) (Perciformes: Serranidae) is a demersal marine fish species, distributed in the eastern Pacific and which does not report studies associated with its parasitic community. Goals: Evaluate the parasitic communities of the snowy grouper H. niphobles of the marine coast of Peru. Methods: Were acquired 126 specimens of H. niphobles from Pucusana, Lima, Perú. The data on total length (LT), weight (W), and sex (S) of the fish were recorded. For the analysis of the parasitic community, parasitological ecological indices, aggregation indices, alpha diversity indices and association between fish biometric parameters and parasitological indices were calculated. Results: The parasitic fauna in H. niphobles was composed of monogeneans, trematodes, cestodes, acanthocephalans and crustaceans distributed in eight species among endoparasites and ectoparasites. The monogenetic Microcotyle sp. was the parasite with the highest percentage of prevalence (65.87%), mean abundance (3.68), mean intensity of infection (5.59). The distribution type found was aggregated or contagious for species with prevalence greater than 10%. Only the mean intensity of Microcotyle sp. was found to be positively related to the weight of snowy grouper. A low heterogeneity was observed between the parasite community and the sex of the host (F=0.5, p=0.73). Main component analysis shows a low association between most variables with each of the two main components (KMO = 0.52; Bartlett’s test, X² = 52.75, p=0.20). Conclusions: H. niphobles is considered a new host for eight parasites recorded in this study.