Four species of acanthocephalans parasitic in freshwater gobies Rhinogobius spp. in western and central Japan, with a list of the known parasites of Rhinogobius spp. of Japan (1935-2018)

Four species of acanthocephalans are reported from gobies of the genus Rhinogobius in western and central Japan: Acanthocephalus gotoi Van Cleave, 1925 from Rhinogobius similis in the Kamo River (Hiroshima Prefecture) and Rhinogobius sp. OR (=orange type) in the Sōja River (Ehime Prefecture) and the Hiwatashi River (Kōchi Prefecture); Acanthocephalus longiacanthus Katahira and Nagasawa, 2014 from Rhinogobius nagoyae and Rhinogobius sp. OR in the Tenchi River (Hiroshima Prefecture), Rhinogobius fluviatilis in the Kamo River, and Rhinogobius sp. OR in the Sōja and Hiwatashi rivers; Acanthocephalus minor Yamaguti, 1935 from Rhinogobius flumineus in the Aruji River (Hiroshima Prefecture); and Southwellina hispida (Van Cleave, 1925) from Rhinogobius flumineus in the Aruji River and the Shika River (Kyōto Prefecture). All these collections represent new host records for the acanthocephalans. New prefecture records are A. gotoi and A. longiacanthus from Hiroshima and Kochi prefectures, and A. minor and S. hispida from Hiroshima Prefecture. Based on the previous and present papers published between the years 1935 and 2018, 48 nominal and some unidentified species of the parasites have been reported from the Japanese Rhinogobius spp. The nominal species include: 3 species in the Myxozoa (Cnidaria); 1 species in the Monogenea; 16 species in the Trematoda; 4 species in the Cestoda (all Platyhelminthes); 3 species in the Nematoda; 5 species in the Acanthocephala; 15 species in the Bivalvia (Mollusca); and 1 species in the Copepoda (Arthropoda).