The stunning diversity of cichlid fishes has greatly enhanced our understanding of speciation and radiation. Little is known about the evolution of cichlid parasites. Parasites are abundant components of biodiversity, whose diversity typically exceeds that of their hosts. In the first comprehensive phylogenetic parasitological analysis of a vertebrate radiation, we study monogenean parasites infecting tropheine cichlids from Lake Tanganyika. Monogeneans are flatworms usually infecting the body surface and gills of fishes. In contrast to many other parasites, they depend only on a single host species to complete their lifecycle. Our spatially comprehensive combined nuclear-mitochondrial DNA dataset of the parasites covering almost all tropheine host species (N = 18), reveals species-rich parasite assemblages and shows consistent host-specificity. Statistical comparisons of host and parasite phylogenies based on distance and topology-based tests demonstrate significant congruence and suggest that host-switching is rare. Molecular rate evaluation indicates that species of Cichlidogyrus probably diverged synchronically with the initial radiation of the tropheines. They further diversified through within-host speciation into an overlooked species radiation. The unique life history and specialisation of certain parasite groups has profound evolutionary consequences. Hence, evolutionary parasitology adds a new dimension to the study of biodiversity hotspots like Lake Tanganyika.

Biology Department Royal Museum for Central Africa Leuvensesteenweg 13 B 3080 Tervuren Belgium

Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 CZ 611 37 Brno Czech Republic

Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution IRD CNRS Université Montpellier 2 CC 063 Place Eugène Bataillon F 34095 Montpellier cedex 05 France

Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters Hellenic Centre for Marine Research 46 7 km Athens Sounio Avenue PO Box 712 Anavyssos GR 190 13 Greece

Institute of Zoology University of Graz Universitätsplatz 2 A 8010 Graz Austria

Laboratory of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Genomics Department of Biology University of Leuven Ch Deberiotstraat 32 B 3000 Leuven Belgium

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Testing the radiation cascade in postglacial radiations of whitefish and their parasites: founder events and host ecology drive parasite evolution

Species of Ergasilus von Nordmann, 1832 (Copepoda: Ergasilidae) from cichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika

Contrasting Host-Parasite Population Structure: Morphology and Mitogenomics of a Parasitic Flatworm on Pelagic Deepwater Cichlid Fishes from Lake Tanganyika

Uncharted digenean diversity in Lake Tanganyika: cryptogonimids (Digenea: Cryptogonimidae) infecting endemic lates perches (Actinopterygii: Latidae)

Temporally consistent species differences in parasite infection but no evidence for rapid parasite-mediated speciation in Lake Victoria cichlid fish

Seven new species of Cichlidogyrus Paperna, 1960 (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) parasitizing the gills of Congolese cichlids from northern Lake Tanganyika

The first next-generation sequencing approach to the mitochondrial phylogeny of African monogenean parasites (Platyhelminthes: Gyrodactylidae and Dactylogyridae)

Underexplored diversity of gill monogeneans in cichlids from Lake Tanganyika: eight new species of Cichlidogyrus Paperna, 1960 (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) from the northern basin of the lake, with remarks on the vagina and the heel of the male copulatory organ

The phylogenetic position of the enigmatic Balkan Aulopyge huegelii (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from the perspective of host-specific Dactylogyrus parasites (Monogenea), with a description of Dactylogyrus omenti n. sp

Redescription of Cichlidogyrus tiberianus Paperna, 1960 and C. dossoui Douëllou, 1993 (Monogenea: Ancyrocephalidae), with special reference to the male copulatory organ

Reduced host-specificity in a parasite infecting non-littoral Lake Tanganyika cichlids evidenced by intraspecific morphological and genetic diversity

Deep-water parasite diversity in Lake Tanganyika: description of two new monogenean species from benthopelagic cichlid fishes

First insights into the diversity of gill monogeneans of 'Gnathochromis' and Limnochromis (Teleostei, Cichlidae) in Burundi: do the parasites mirror host ecology and phylogenetic history?