A survey of cestodes in some shallow water elasmobranchs of Texas.

It is the intent of the writer to determine what cestodes are present in several species of elasmobranchs from the Texas coast. The species collected for this study were Dasyatis sabina, Dasyatis sayi, Dasyatis americana, Aetobatis narinari, Thinoptera bonasus, Marcine brasiliensis, Sphyrna tiburo, Sphyrna diplana, Carcharhinus leucas, Carcharhinus limbatus, Isurus oxyrinchus, and Alopias vulpinus. It is hoped that this work will add to the zoogeography of cestodes found in these fish. In the present survey 128 fish of 12 species were collected from Galveston Bay, Corpus Christi Bay, Aransas Bay, and in the Gulf of Mexico close to Rockport and Port Aransas. The spiral valves of these fish were examined for cestodes and the species, incidence, and percent infection were recorded.