M.Sc. / Recent years have seen a remarkable increase in scientific research and studies conducted regarding the unique group of parasitic isopods known as gnathiids. The taxonomy of gnathiids are based solely on the morphological characteristics of the free-living adult males, which means that the female and larval life stages are often not collected and described with the males, and when collected it is seldom possible to even identify these stages when not in the company of there adult males. Numerous studies have been conducted in Australia regarding cleaning behaviour of coral reef fishes, where these gnathiid larvae are extremely abundant and are often collected. These types of studies as well as others are increasing all around the world, and because of the fact that the larvae cannot be easily identified, the results and data collected from these various studies are often misinterpreted or inconclusive and makes no sense. The fact that gnathiid larvae may serve as possible vectors for certain fish blood parasites and have various physiological and ecological effects on their fish hosts, which may lead to mortality, can have detrimental economical effects on the fisheries industry. This study was thus conducted to improve the identification methods that are currently applied to the larval life stages of gnathiid isopods through various means including increasing the number of detailed descriptions available, constructing a taxonomic key and lastly conducting a basic phylogenetic analysis of a group of known gnathiid larvae in order to aid researchers with future identifications. It was hypothesised that firstly, although there are some gnathiid descriptions from coral reefs, mostly of adult males, it is likely that there are still a great number of unknown and not yet described gnathiid species, because coral reefs are one of the most highly biodiverse marine ecosystems. Secondly, that the distribution of coral reef gnathiids is much wider than currently known or documented and lastly, that it might be possible to identify gnathiid larvae species in the absence of adult males, through the use of detailed taxonomic descriptions of these larval stages and there live colouration patterns, and to then construct a taxonomic key to aid researchers with future identifications.

M.Sc. / In this research project, a variety of sites and ecosystems were studied. These ranged from tropical coral reefs (north-eastern Coast of Australia), to warm temperate intertidal pools (South Coast of South Africa, SA) and sub-tropical estuaries (East Coast of SA). The overall aims of the thesis were to examine the haematophagous gnathiid ectoparasites and blood protozoans of some host teleosts found in these systems, and to some extent to investigate the role gnathiids might play as vectors of the protozoans. Gnathiid research in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) focuses mainly on gnathiid ecology and not taxonomy. This is not the case in SA, where gnathiid taxonomy is researched more regularly and gnathiid ecology has received little attention. In this thesis, two new gnathiid species, Gnathia aureamaculosa and Gnathia sp. B, were described from a number of teleost fishes of the GBR and several morphological features, including live colouration patterns, were highlighted as useful in future gnathiid identification and discrimination. The feeding ecology of Gnathia africana from SA was also examined and this feeding study was based on similar work done on coral reef gnathiids in Australia. Gnathiids of the GBR are mainly nocturnal due to cleaner fish predation during the day, whereas G. africana was found to have a preference for dawn/early morning/midday feeding on an intertidal teleost, Clinus superciliosus. Gnathia africana‟s behaviour/feeding patterns, especially of its different juvenile stages, are therefore determined by time of day, and likely by locality and predation by other organisms, such as fishes, though probably not by cleaner fish. Gnathiid feeding behaviours/patterns are thus, it seems, determined by environmental and biological factors, and these vary according to the type of ecosystem studied. Several gnathiids and fish blood protozoan species are known from the South Coast of SA, but the East Coast has remained largely unexplored. Sampling along the East Coast yielded the first records of haemogregarines from the blood of fishes in this region, in particular new hosts and locality records probably for both probable Haemogregarina bigemina and a Haemogregarina quadrigemina – like haemogregarine. However, both haemogregarines displayed unusual features compared with the original species descriptions, in size, development patterns, or effect on host cells. Limited data suggested that juveniles of Gnathia pilosus were possible haematophagous vectors of these haemogregarines, but further studies are required to confirm this.

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