New morphological data on Opecoeloides pedicathedrae Travassos, Freitas & Buhrnheim, 1966 (Digenea: Opecoelidae)

Abstract

New morphological data on the ventral sucker of Opecoeloides pedicathedrae with ten papilliform processes, original figures and measurementes, are reported.<br>São apresentados na presente nota, novos dados morfológicos sobre o acetábulo de Opecoeloides pedicathedrae com dez estruturas papiliformes ao invés de seis previamente descritas, figuras originais e medidas

Redescription and First Nucleotide Sequences of Opecoeloides pedicathedrae (Digenea: Opecoelidae), a Parasite of Cynoscion leiarchus (Cuvier, 1830) (Eupercaria: Sciaenidae) from Brazil

“…Opecoeloides pedicathedrae was first described by Travassos et al [3] from the intestine of the sand drum, Umbrina coroides Cuvier, off the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. Subsequently, it was reported from the intestine of the Southern kingcroaker, Menticirrhus americanus (Linnaeus), the flying gurnard Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus), and the barbel drum Ctenosciaena gracilicirrhus (Metzelaar), off the Rio de Janeiro coast, Brazil [7][8][9][10]. In the present study, new light microscopy and confocal laser microscopy analysis on O. pedicathedrae collected from C. leiarchus and new partial sequences of 18S and 28S rDNA genes are provided.…”

“…The inclusion of the new sequences of O. pedicathedrae showed a phylogenetic convergence between O. pedicathedrae and O. fimbriatus compared to O. furcatus. Opecoeloides pedicathedrae was reported only off the coast of Brazil [3,7,8], while Opecoeloides fimbriatus was reported from the Western North Atlantic [22,39,40], both sides of the Panama Isthmus [41], and the Pacific coast of Mexico [23,42]. Opecoeloides furcatus was reported from Mediterranean waters [21,43,44], off the Canary Islands [45], off the coast of Belgium [46], and from Japan [47].…”

“…The only differences were the size of the eggs, which were slightly larger (60-63 × 37-40 in the present study vs. 47-60 × 25-37 in the original description), and the larger widths of the ovary (290-330 in the present study vs. 180-280 in the original description) and testes (400-450 vs. 215-330 in the anterior testis and 400-450 vs. 225-305 in the posterior testis). The specimens of O. pedicathedrae studied by Fábio [7] and Fernandes et al [8] from M. americanus also presented a smaller width of eggs and a larger range in the size of testis and ovary, thus demonstrating that there can be intraspecific variation in size according to the host.…”