Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Clinostomum detruncatum (Trematoda: Clinostomidae) Metacercariae Infecting Synbranchus marmoratus

Abstract

A complete morphological description, supported by molecular data, of Clinostomum detruncatum metacercariae is reported in this study. The metacercariae were found infecting Synbranchus marmoratus from the Paraná River, municipality of Guaíra, Paraná State, Brazil. The taenioidean uterus is the main morphological characteristic of this species. Both neighbor-joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood (ML) trees showed 2 clear separate clusters grouping together the species from the Palearctic region (Clinostomum complanatum, Clinostomum cutaneum, Clinostomum phalacrocoracis, Clinostomum philippinense) and those from the Nearctic/Neotropical regions (Clinostomum marginatum, Clinostomum tataxumui, C. detruncatum, Clinostomum sp. 7). The latter clade is divided into 2 subclades grouping species from North America and Mexico (C. marginatum and C. tataxumui), and those from Brazil (C. detruncatum and Clinostomum sp. 7).