Intraguild interactions between five congeneric species of Thaparocleidus (Monogenoidea) from the freshwater shark...

The fish host (Wallago attu) and monogenoid parasite (Thaparocleidus sp.) have been recorded during 2 years (2011 and 2012) to investigate intra/interspecific interactions among query species (T. sudhakari (Gusev, 1976) Lim, 1996; T. indicus (Kulkarni, 1969) Lim, 1996; T. gomtius (Jain, 1952) Lim, 1996; T. yogendraii Agrawal, 1981 and T. wallagonius Jain, 1952) in the light of parasitic worm burden, morphological and molecular data. Each species is highly host specific (oioxenous), with a specialized functional niche. Being niche specialists, they exhibit niche overlapping along with co-existence due to reproductive barrier. Furthermore, a molecular marker, affirming clear-cut genetic variation in spite of structural entities, provides evidence for infra-speciation as well as co-speciation.