"White Grub in Centrarchidae from the Ohio River Drainage"

White grub (Posthodiplostomum minimum centrarchi) is a juvenile strigeoid trematode that has been documented in many centrarchid fishes.  It infects centrarchid fish by cercariae penetrating the skin, so transmission should be more efficient in slow moving water, and most studies are done on lentic systems where sunfish predominate.  In this study, eleven centrarchid fish species (spotted bass (n=126), largemouth bass (n=18), smallmouth bass (n=8), bluegill (n=44), green sunfish (n=26), longear sunfish (n=50), orangespotted sunfish (n=36), redear sunfish (n=17), warmouth (n=13), black crappie (n=15), and white crappie (n=6)) were collected from the Ohio River Drainage in 2014 and 2015. Prevalence of white grub ranged from 0 in white crappie to 100% in redear sunfish, and warmouth. Mean intensity of white grub ranged from one in black crappie to 231 in spotted bass.  In order to compare white grub patterns among different species and size classes of centarchids, mass corrected density parameters were calculated using individual organ weights. Preliminary genetic evidence suggests that there are at least three species of white grub in this system, one of which may be specific to the genus Micropterus. Differences in infection sites among white grub species were also examined.