Scanning Electronic Microscopy Examination for the Egg of Skin Parasite, Entobdella hippoglossi on the Commercially Important Culture Fish, the Atlantic Halibut, Hippoglossus hippoglossi

The egg structure and shape of the skin parasite, Entobdella hippoglossi from the Atlantic halibut, Hippoglossus hippoglossus was examined using scanning electronic microscope. The newly produced eggs of E. hippoglossi were yellowish in color and tetrahedral in shape. The eggs were entwined together in a complicated chain-like fashion by a long filament. The appendage showed the presence of buoy-like structures. The buoy-like structures on the appendage of the eggs of E. hippoglossi in the present study were totally different from other sticky droplets. It is suggested that these structures are not sticky droplets but buoys for floating eggs which have entwined together on the bottom of the sea. It seems that these buoy-like structures may be needed for preventing the eggs from being covered by mud or particles and thus maintaining the eggs in an oxygenated environment.