METAZOAN PARASITES OF Mystus cavasius (HAMILTON) OF RIVER GOMTI WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF ACANTHOCEPHALA Raosentis cavasii sp. nov.

The growing awareness that biodiversity is a precious global asset to present and future generation and that species’s survival and the integrity of habitats and ecosystems are at serious risk , has increased significantly the importance of biodiversity related research. Biodiversity can be defined as the variability among living organism from all sources, including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystem and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species between species and of ecosystems.The diversity of life on earth is nearly unimaginable. There is such a wealth of organism that it’s a continuous need to keep trace of the diversity and there is always a provision for the discovery of new ones as it is a well-known fact that changing environmental conditions, habitat food and other ecological factors are more than enough to bring out certain definite changes and the accumulation of small changes give rise to a new species. With covid-19 we have seen the damage the diseases can do not only to human health but also to the global economy.By protecting biodiversity in Earth’s ecosystem, countries could save lives and money while helping to prevent future pandemics.

The present findings add one new species of an acanthocephalan parasite i.e. Raosentis cavasii from fresh water fish Mystus cavasius. It differs from R. thapari in presence of 20 rows of trunk spines instead of 9 rows, in having unequal lemnisci instead of being equal and in their extension upto proboscis receptacle and in the number of hypodermic nuclei 2-3 pairs dorsal and 1 ventral instead of 3 pairs on both sides.