A total of 22 specimens of whiting Merlangius merlangus (L.) (Teleostei, Gadidae) from the northern Øresund, Denmark were examined for Myxosporea. Zschokkella hildae Auerbach, 1910 (Myxidiidae), Gadimyxa sp. (Parvicapsulidae) and a species of Bipteria occurred in the renal tubules of 9%, 18% and 68% whiting, respectively. Immature spores of the Bipteria species are very similar to spores of Myxoproteus formosus Kovaleva et Gaevskaya, 1979 originally described from the urinary system of whiting from the Celtic Sea. We therefore consider Bipteria sp. from whiting in Denmark conspecific with M. formosus and propose Bipteria formosa (Kovaleva et Gaevskaya, 1979) comb. n. The spore of Bipteria formosa is described in detail and compared with other Bipteria spp. The phylogenetic position of B. formosa, based on partial 18S rDNA sequences, is closest to Leptotheca fugu Tun, Yokoyama, Ogawa et Wakabayashi, 2000 and the Sphaerosporidae.

Institute of Marine Research Postboks 1870 Nordnes N 5817 Bergen Norway

Mechanisms and Drivers for the Establishment of Life Cycle Complexity in Myxozoan Parasites

Myxozoa in high Arctic: Survey on the central part of Svalbard archipelago