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A new species of the genus Paradistomum (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda) from Iwasaki’s snail-eating snake Pareas iwasakii, with a note on morphological variations of Paradistomum megareceptaculum (Tamura, 1941)

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Abstract

Dicrocoeliid trematodes were detected from Iwasaki’s snail-eating snake Pareas iwasakii in Iriomote Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and described as a new species Paradistomum dextra n. sp. in the present study. This new species can be distinguished from the type series of the other members of the genus based on size of eggs and morphological characteristics of body, oral and ventral suckers, and reproductive organs. However, the new species was hard to distinguish from Paradistomum megareceptaculum infecting snakes in Japan, including Iriomote Island where is the type locality of the new species, because it is closely similar to some part of the broad range of morphological variations in P. megareceptaculum. On the other hand, a partial sequence of 28S ribosomal DNA clearly distinguished these two species. Moreover, the new species’ host snake Pareas iwasakii is reported to exclusively feed on land snails while host snakes of P. megareceptaculum feed on small vertebrates, indicating that the new species is also ecologically different from P. megareceptaculum. We also redescribed P. megareceptaculum based on adults sampled in this study and past studies to record the morphological variations of this species.

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Data availability

The sequence datasets analyzed during the current study are available in the Genbank repository, LC798259–LC798264. The other datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Takuo Akuzawa, Shinichiro Mukai, Takashi Nagamine and Yumiko Nakaya for helping our research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, Toho University, 2-2-1, Miyama Funabashi, Chiba, 274-8510, Japan

    Tsukasa Waki & Harushige Seo

  2. Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda University, 2-2 Wakamatsu-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0056, Japan

    Masaki Hoso

  3. Present Address: Pathology Division, Nansei Field Station, Fisheries Technology Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, 422-1, Nakatsuhamaura, Minami-Ise, Watarai, Mie, 516-0193, Japan

    Masato Nitta

  4. Faculty of Environmental Science, The University of Shiga Prefecture, 2500 Hassaka-cho, Hikone, Shiga, 522–8533, Japan

    Misako Urabe

  5. JSPS Research Fellow, Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe, Hyogo, 657-8501, Japan

    Masato Nitta

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  1. Tsukasa Waki
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Contributions

T. W., M. H., M. N., and M. U. wrote the main manuscript text. M. H. and M. N. sampled hosts and trematodes. T. W. and H. S. prepared figures, tables and online resources. M. N. and H. S. prepared trematode specimens for observations.

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Correspondence to Tsukasa Waki.

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Waki, T., Hoso, M., Nitta, M. et al. A new species of the genus Paradistomum (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda) from Iwasaki’s snail-eating snake Pareas iwasakii, with a note on morphological variations of Paradistomum megareceptaculum (Tamura, 1941). Syst Parasitol 101, 41 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-024-10164-1

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