Paraliga charadrii n. sp. (Cestoda: Dilepididae) from the Semipalmated Plover, Charadrius semipalmatus Bonaparte (Aves: Charadriiformes)

Abstract

Paraliga charadrii n. sp. (Dilepididae) is described from the small intestine of the semipalmated plover Charadrius semipalmatus (Charadriidae) collected from the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada. The new species is distinguished from the type species Paraliga oophorae (Belopolskaya, 1971) Belopolskaya and Kulachkova, 1973, by having 2 identical rows of rostellar hooks and fewer testes and from the more similar Paraliga celermaturus (Deblock and Rosé, 1962) Bona, 1994, by its shorter and less robust rostellar hooks (18-19 microm vs. 24-26 microm). This is the first record of a species of Paraliga in the New World. Paraliga charadrii n. sp. was present in semipalmated plovers collected on their breeding grounds in Manitoba, on staging grounds in the Bay of Fundy, during southward migration, on wintering grounds in Venezuela, and on spring staging grounds at Delaware Bay, during northward migration, suggesting that transmission is ubiquitous.