Description ofn. sp. (Digenea: Haploporidae) from characid fishes in the Iguazu River Basin based on morphological and molecular evidence.

Abstract

Here we describe a new species of the genusfound parasitizingGaravello & Sampaio,(Garavello and Sampaio) andCasciotta, Almirón & Azpelicueta from the Iguazu National Park, Misiones province, Argentina.n. sp. was studied based on morphological and molecular (28S rDNA and COI mtDNA sequences) data. The COI mtDNA tree indicated that the specimens collected from the three fish hosts are conspecific, with an intragroup p-distance of 0%. The new species shows an intermediate morphological configuration between the diminutive and robust forms described forby Curran (2018). Although, in the 28S rDNA tree, it is placed in a well-supported clade with the two robust species analysed (and S; p-distance of 1 and 2%, respectively), it differs from the robust group by the range of body size, mature egg size, oral and ventral sucker size, sucker ratio, oral sucker to pharynx ratio, and post-cecal or post-testis/body length percentage. Our results led us to redefine the robust group as having eggs shorter or equal in length to the pharynx.n. sp. the 10species reported from Argentina and the 7species within the robust group.