The current trend in marine parasitology research, particularly in South Africa, is to focus on a specific parasite taxon and not on the total parasite community of a specific fish host. However, these records do not always reveal the ecological role of parasites in ecosystems. Thus, the present study aimed to determine which factors influence the parasite community composition of the endemic southern African intertidal klipfish, Clinus superciliosus (n = 75). Metazoan parasites were sampled from four localities (two commercial harbours - west coast; and two relatively pristine localities - southeast coast) along the South African coast. A total of 75 klipfish were examined for parasites, where 30 distinct taxa, representing seven taxonomic groups were found: Acanthocephala (4 taxa), Cestoda (2 taxa), Crustacea (5 taxa), Digenea (11 taxa), Hirudinea (2 taxa), Monogenea (1 taxon) and Nematoda (5 taxa). Results indicated that the main driver of diversity was locality, with the highest diversity on the southeast coast, most likely due to higher water temperatures and upwelling compared to the west coast. The parasite community composition of the klipfish was significantly influenced by water temperature and parasite life cycle. These results emphasise the importance of parasitological surveys including all parasite taxa in hosts from multiple localities and seasons, to better comprehend their ecological role.
Keywords: Bioindicators; Diversity index; Endemic; Marine fish parasites; Marine health; Multivariate statistics.
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