Taxonomy of the metazoan parasites of the snapper Pagrus auratus in New Zealand

The metazoan parasites of the snapper Pagrus auratus were surveyed from specimens collected in north‐eastern New Zealand. Seven species of endoparasites were found, five in the digestive tract. These included two digeneans ( Proctoeces sp. and Diphtherostomum sp.), two cestode plerocercoid larvae (belonging to the Families Dasyrhynchidae and Phyllobothriidae), and a nematode (Cucullanus sp.). Two other nematodes were also found, one in the gonad (Philometra lateolabracis) and the other (Anisakis sp.) encapsulated in the mesenteries adjacent to the rectum and on the peritoneal lining. Five of the seven endoparasites collected in this study (Proctoeces sp., Diphtherostomum sp., Cucullanus sp., and the two cestode plerocercoids) have not been previously recorded from P. auratus in New Zealand. A further three endoparasites have been described previously from snapper but were not collected during this study. The faunal composition of the metazoan endoparasites of P. auratus from New Zealand is compared with that described from snapper in Australia and Japan.