小优视频

While dissecting a ladyfish in Assistant Professor of Biology Emily Durkin鈥檚 parasitology class in 2024, students found something embedded in the fin that didn鈥檛 belong: a worm. Durkin encouraged the students to explore further and put the worm under a microscope.

Two years later, Durkin and her students are still studying what that worm might be and what it might reveal about biodiversity in Tampa Bay.

At the time the worm was first noticed, Durkin posted a photo to social media, and another parasitologist responded that it looked like it belonged to a group of worms first described from Australian waters in 2022.

But, if that was the case, what was that worm doing in Tampa Bay?

A student, Kathleen Gillis 鈥�25, asked to study the worm, and she turned over the question to Liza Walker 鈥�28 when she graduated.

There are many implications of the research, Walker said. For one, the worm could be a 鈥渂ioindicator,鈥� meaning it could provide information about how healthy its environment is. Or it could be a 鈥渂io tag,鈥� which means it is something that can be used to track fish populations and the movements of the fish, 鈥渨hich is really important for our fisheries in that field, and sustainable fisheries as well,鈥� Walker said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the potential of new discoveries and finding out new information that nobody else in the world ever has looked at with this specific parasite,鈥� she said of her interest in the project.听

Last year, Durkin, along with Carlos Santamaria, assistant professor of biology; John Ambrosio, instructional staff; Gillis and Walker published a paper about their findings in Check List 鈥斕齌he Journal of Biodiversity Data.

Walker has an external grant to explore the historical fish collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida, so every Friday, she travels to Gainesville to peruse thousands of specimens of preserved ladyfish in an attempt to identify the worm.

She looks at the presence of the worm in the fish over time and how long the worm has been impacting the fish. If it shows up in ladyfish from years ago, she wonders how the worm was impacting environments then compared with now.

鈥淭here鈥檚 just no previous research on this worm in this region of the world, and this species of ladyfish as well,鈥� Walker said, 鈥淪o basically, anything we find out is exciting, but the actual identity of the worm, that鈥檚 been a pretty big one for us.鈥�

The group of researchers is now exploring if the worm is a new species and whether they have evidence to prove it.

Walker plans to continue this research for the remainder of her time at 小优视频ampa. After graduation, she intends to go to graduate school, where she will continue marine parasitology research.听