Trematodes from Red Sea fishes: Proneohelicometra aegyptensis gen. nov., sp. nov. (Opecoelidae Ozaki, 1925) and Neohypocreadium gibsoni sp. nov. (Lepocreadiidae Odhner, 1905)

Abstract

Materials and methods Cable, 1960 which is the only opecoelid genus having caeca opening with separate ani and eggs with unipolar filaments, but differs significantly from it in having two lateral folds of body wall extending along the posterior third of body, an oral sucker smaller than the ventral sucker, a median cirrus sac not reaching the ventral sucker posteriorly and a median genital pore situating immediately posterior to the intestinal bifurcation. Neohypocreadium gibsoni sp. nov. is similar to the other four species of the genus, but is unique in having a distinctly pear-shaped body and a much smaller egg size, and differs significantly from each in several other characters: from N. longisaccatum, it differs in having a cirrus sac not reaching the testes and a pretesticular ovary; from N. dorsoporum in having an external seminal vesicle much shorter than the cirrus sac, a longer cirrus sac extending posteriorly to the level of the posterior margin of the ventral sucker and a pretesticular ovary; from N. chaetodoni in having a smaller body size, symmetrical testes, a longer cirrus sac extending posteriorly to the level of the posterior margin of the ventral sucker and a trilobed ovary; and from N. aegyptense in having a smaller body size, symmetrical testes, a longer cirrus sac extending posteriorly to the level of the posterior margin of the ventral sucker, a trilobed ovary and vitelline follicles terminating anteriorly at the level of oesophagus. Neohypocreadium Machida et Uchida, 1987 is briefly reviewed.

The phylogeny of the Lepocreadioidea (Platyhelminthes, Digenea) inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial genes: Implications for their systematics and evolution

“…An unusual feature of this worm is the dorsal position of the excretory pore, which occurs at about the level of the caecal terminations. N. dorsoporum, found more or less exclusively in coral reef fishes of the family Chaetodontidae, is unusual in its dorsal genital pore (Machida and Uchida 1987, Bray et al 1994, Hassanine and Gibson 2005, Hassanine 2006b). …”

First record of Derogenes varicus and Dinurus scombri (Digenea: Hemiurata) from Red Sea fishes, Yemen

“…The literature on digeneans of Red Sea fishes is relatively limited. These included some papers on species from the Egyptian side of the Red Sea (Nagaty, 1948(Nagaty, , 1954(Nagaty, , 1956Nagaty and Abdel-Aal, 1962a, b;Saoud and Ramadan, 1983;Ramadan, 1984;Hassanine, 2005;Hassanine and Gibson, 2005a, b;Abdou et al, 2006), Jordan (El-Labadi et al, 2005, Saudi Arabia (Al-Jahdali, 2010) and Yemen (Al-Zubaidy, 2010, 2011a. As both E. tauvina and A. stellatus are encountered as widely distributed food fish in the Red Sea and are comparatively cheap in prices, it was decided to study their digeneans as some of such parasites are known to be transmissible to humans through the consumption of fishes, crustaceans or molluscs (Adams et al, 1997).…”