A contribution on first report of morphogenetic characterization of Anisakis typica parasitizing Indian sand whiting, Sillago sihama from Central west coast of India

The search for hitherto undiscovered larvae of Anisakis sp. from marine habitat in the Indian sub-continent yielded A. typica (Dujardin) larvae hitherto unconfirmed. The present study is the maiden attempt to report 3^rd stage larvae of A. typica from the reef-associated Sillago sihama in Arabian Sea off the coast of Goa, which has been identified recently as reef-populated area within the maritime boundary of India. The morphometry of 3^rd stage larvae has been presented with a record of molecular characterization. In the context of current study, the natural prevalence of A. typica larvae in marine piscine hosts of Arabian Sea in India was 6.84 % and of co-occurring Rotundocollarette capoori (Yadav, Kapoor and Malhotra) in the same fish was 13.65 %. The roundworms were confirmed to be A. typica by application of the molecular and genetic characterization based on ITS1, ITS2 and 18S rDNA sequence analysis. The infestation of reef-associated fishes in this study by anisakid worms study provided an opportunity to explore mechanism of ecological associations of coral reefs with parasitization in future.