A new myxozoan parasitizing Mesonauta festivus (Cichliformes: Cichlidae) from the lake region in the municipality of Tartarugalzinho, Eastern Amazon, Brazil

Abstract The Amazon is the largest river basin in the world and it is home to the greatest diversity of freshwater fish in the world. Mesonauta festivus is a cichlid popularly known as flag cichlid, widely distributed throughout South America. The diversity of parasites in fish from the Amazon region is still underestimated, due to the high fishes diversity. The Myxozoa class has a universal distribution, with some specimens being pathogenic to some fish. The aim of this work was to describe a new species of Hoferellus in M. festivus. The fish were collected in the lake region, municipality of Tartarugalzinho, in the state of Amapá, Brazil. The new species was found parasitizing the urinary bladder of M. festivus. Spores were 11.5 ±1.1 (10.4-12.6) µm long and 10.9 ±1 (9.9-11.9) µm wide, and polar capsules were equally sized, measuring 4.9 ±0.5 (4.4-5.4) µm long and 3.4 ±0.9 (2.5-4.3) µm wide, with a pyriform shape, convergent with the apical region of the spore. The polar filament was wound with 5 to 6 turns. Morphological, morphometric, molecular and phylogenetic analysis proved that it is a new species of Hoferellus in the Amazon region.