We herein describe n. gen., n. sp. Dutton & Bullard (Liolopidae Dollfus, 1934) from specimens infecting the intestine of the serrated hinged terrapin (), east African black mud turtle () (both Nwanedzi River, Mozambique), and South African helmeted terrapin () (North-western Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa). The new genus can be easily differentiated from the other accepted liolopid genera ( Cohn, 1902; Odhner, 1912; Nicoll, 1914; Brooks & Overstreet, 1978) by the combination of having a linguliform body approximately 6-9 × longer than wide, tegumental spines/scales, a minute ventral sucker located in the anterior 1/7-1/8 of the body, deeply lobed testes that are transverse and abut the caeca (spanning the intercaecal space), a uterus that is lateral to the anterior testis (not ventral to the anterior testis), a lobed ovary that is dextral and nearest the posterior testis, and a vitellarium that does not extend anteriad to the level of the ventral sucker and that does not fill the intercaecal space. Nucleotide sequences of large subunit ribosomal DNA () and internal transcribed space region () from all analyzed specimens of the new species were identical, respectively; the sequences differed from that of Cohn, 1902 and from that of Yamaguti, 1933 by 103 (8%) and 105 (8%) nucleotides, respectively. The phylogenetic analysis recovered the new genus sister to a clade comprising and . A key to liolopid genera is provided herein. The present study comprises the first nucleotide-based phylogenetic placement of and first record of a liolopid from South Africa or Mozambique. It is the first proposal of a new liolopid genus in 43 yrs, and it documents a second liolopid genus from while tripling the number of liolopid turtle hosts reported from the continent of Africa.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8688888 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2021.09.006 | DOI Listing |
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