Diversity of the genus Bunodera Railliet, 1896 (Trematoda: Allocreadiidae) in the northern part of Eastern Europe and North-eastern Asia, estimated from 28S rDNA sequences, with a description of Bunodera vytautasi sp. nov.

Abstract

Phylogenetic relationship reconstruction and taxonomical analysis of trematodes of the genus Bunodera was carried out using 28S rDNA partial sequences along with a description and molecular characterisation of a new species, B. vytautasi sp. nov. A new species is reported from the intestine of Pungitius pungitius (Linnaeus, 1758), collected from Magadan Region, Russia. The diagnostic characters of B. vytautasi sp. nov. are the extension of vitelline fields from the oral sucker or posterior edge of the pharynx to the posterior extremity of the body, the confluence of vitelline fields within the forebody, the extension of the cirrus-sac to the posterior third of ventral sucker or further backwards with an outlet beyond the posterior edge of the sucker, and the presence of a unipartite internal seminal vesicle. Both Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood trees shared the same tree topology, in which the genus Bunodera was shown to be monophyletic. Representatives of the genus Bunodera were distributed into three well-supported clades: percid-infecting species (Eurasian species B. luciopercae and B. acerinae and North American B. luciopercae s.l.), gasterosteid-infecting species (amphi-Pacific B. mediovitellata and North American B. inconstans and B. eucaliae) and percid/gasterosteid-infecting species (Asiatic B. vytautasi sp. nov. and North American B. sacculata). Eurasian B. luciopercae and B. acerinae were more closely related to each other than to North American B. luciopercae s.l.