Abstract
A brief summary of the early history of the study of Atlantic Ocean marine fish digeneans is followed by a discussion of the occurrence and distribution of these worms in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent Eastern Pacific Ocean, using the Provinces of the 'Marine Ecoregions' delimited by Spalding et al. (Bioscience 57:573-583, 2007). The discussion is based on a database of 9,880 records of 1,274 species in 430 genera and 45 families. 8,633 of these records are from the Atlantic Ocean, including 1,125 species in 384 genera and 45 families. About 1,000 species are endemic to the Atlantic Ocean Basin. The most species-rich families in the Atlantic Ocean are the Opecoelidae Ozaki, 1925, Hemiuridae Looss, 1899 and Bucephalidae Poche, 1907, and the most wide-spread the Opecoelidae, Hemiuridae, Acanthocolpidae Lühe, 1906, Lepocreadiidae Odhner, 1905 and Lecithasteridae Odhner, 1905. A total of 109 species are shared by the Atlantic Ocean and the Eastern Pacific, made up of cosmopolitan, circum-boreal, trans-Panama Isthmus and Magellanic species. The lack of genetic evaluation of identifications is emphasised and the scope for much more work is stressed.