Paralutztrema hylacichlae n.g., n.sp., a dicrocoeliine fluke from the Louisiana wood thrush, Hylacichla mustelina (Gmelin).

Abstract

As a result of their feeding habits, birds of 36 or more families have proved to be susceptible to a large number of dicrocoeliine trematodes living principally in the bile ducts and gall-bladder of their hosts (Faust, 1966). As more species of avian hosts are examined and their liver flukes studied, additional species are described and previously recognized species are reported from new hosts and new geographical areas (Lumsden and Zischke, 1963).In 1958, Yamaguti differentiated Dicrocoeliinae Looss, 1899 into 8 tribes, one of which he named Lutztrematini, having as cardinal characters an acetabulum much larger than oral sucker and testes tandem or diagonal; single genus Lutztrema Travassos, 1941 and L. obliquum (Travassos, 1917) as type species. The avian dicrocoeliine species described in this communication has important morphological characters agreeing with the Lutztrematini and others lacking agreement. In consequence, it has seemed necessary to create a new genus, Paralutztrema, related to, but generically separate from Lutztrema.