Metazoan parasite community of Leporinus piau Fowler, 1941 (Anostomidae, Characiformes), an endemic freshwater fish from the Caatinga domain, Brazil.

The present study aimed to inventory the parasitic fauna of Leporinus piau from the Lima Campos weir, Salgado River basin, municipality of Icó, Ceará, Brazil. A total of 35 host specimens were collected, whereas all were parasitized by at least two metazoan taxa. A total of 2,910 parasite specimens belonging to five taxonomic groups were identified such as: Myxozoa (Henneguya sp. 1 and Henneguya sp. 2), Monogenea (Jainus beccus, Jainus radixelongatus, Tereancistrum flabellum, Tereancistrum paranaensis, Tereancistrum parvus, Urocleidoides digitabulum, Urocleidoides paradoxus, Urocleidoides sp., Dactylogyridae gen. sp. 1, Dactylogyridae gen. sp. 2 and Dactylogyridae gen. sp. 3), Digenea (Diplostomum lunaschiae and Clinostomum sp.), Nematoda (Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) inopinatus) and Copepoda (Gamispatulus schizodontis). Seventeen parasite taxa were found, with the class Monogenea being the most abundant group. The main site of infestation was the gills, presenting 14 taxa, including myxozoans, monogeneans and digeneans. This study highlights seven new parasitic associations for the host and 16 for the studied locality, as well as new records of diversity indices for the parasitic taxa found. It was observed that the class Monogenea exhibited a broad diversity of species, contributing to the understanding of the distribution patterns of fish parasites in the Brazilian semiarid region.