Myxobolus bragantinus n. sp.

Host: Mugil rubrioculus Harrison et al. 2007 .

Locality: Municipality of Bragança, northeastern Pará, Brazil.

Site of infection: Gill filaments

Plasmodial type: Intrafilamental-epithelial (FE)

Prevalence: 60% (90/150).

Type material: Slides containing cysts with spores in the gill filament, which were processed by embedding in paraffin, and stained with Ziehl-Neelsen (Fig. 2a). These specimens were deposited in the International Protozoan Type Specimen Collection at the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil (catalog number: INPA 34).

Etymology: The species name, bragantinus, refers to the collection site, at Bragança, in the Brazilian state of Pará, where the microparasite was discovered and described for the first time.

The histological analysis shows cysts lodged internally in the gill filament, located in the intermediate portion, causing hypertrophy, a moderate increase in the size of the filaments, associated with the presence of the parasitic cysts of Myxobolus bragantinus n. sp., and a thickening of the cyst wall (Fig. 2 a–b). Under light microscopy, the ZN-stained slides revealed spores characteristic of Myxobolus (Lom & Dykova 2006), featuring polar capsules (see Fig. 2b). The location of the parasite in the gills, is known as the “intrafilamental-epithelial” (FE) type.