Digenean life cycle truncation has enabled the opportunistic exploitation of herbivorous fishes.

Abstract

New, well-known and predicted life cycles for trematodes of the Haploporoidea (Haploporidae and Emprostiotrematidae) and three families of the Lepocreadioidea (Enenteridae, Gorgocephalidae, Gyliauchenidae) involve encystment of the metacercaria in the open (usually on vegetation) followed by ingestion by a range of herbivorous or detritivorous fishes. These life cycles appear among relatively highly derived plagiorchiidan trematodes in which three-host life cycles incorporating an animal second intermediate host are dominant. We hypothesise that the two-host life cycles in the Haploporoidea and Lepocreadioidea arose by secondary truncation of a three-host cycle; the second intermediate host was lost in favour of encystment in the open. Modification of a three-host life cycle effective for the infection of carnivores is consistent with the understanding that fishes arose as carnivores and that multiple lineages have secondarily become detritivores and herbivores. Four of the five trematode families involved infect fishes relating to multiple orders, suggesting a complex history of host-switching. In contrast, the Gorgocephalidae, the smallest of the families, has been found only in a single family, Kyphosidae. The timing of the evolutionary events leading to this putative life cycle truncation is yet to be deduced, but the rich developing understanding of the history of the fishes creates a strong template for future analysis.