Polyphyly of the Dinurinae Looss, 1907 (Digenea: Hemiuridae) and resurrection of the Mecoderinae Skrjabin & Guschanskaja, 1954 based on novel collection of Tubulovesicula laticaudi Parukhin, 1969 from marine elapid snakes in Sri Lanka.

Abstract

With one exception, the only known hemiurid trematodes that do not use teleost fishes as definitive hosts instead occur in marine elapid snakes. These comprise six species across four genera and three subfamilies, and so presumably indicate at least three independent invasions of marine snakes from teleost fishes. Here, one of these taxa, Tubulovesicula laticaudi Parukhin, 1969 (= T. orientalis Chattopadhyaya, 1970 n. syn.) is reported from Sri Lanka, collected from Shaw's sea snake Hydrophis curtus (Shaw) (Elapidae: Hydrophiinae: Hydrophinii), the annulated sea snake H. cyanocinctus Daudin and the yellow sea snake H. spiralis (Shaw) off Nayaru in the Bay of Bengal, and from H. spiralis in Portugal Bay, Gulf of Mannar. Novel molecular data, for COI mtDNA and ITS2 and 28S rDNA, are the first for a species of Tubulovesicula Yamaguti, 1934. Nominally, Tubulovesicula belongs in the Dinurinae Looss, 1907, but in phylogenetic analyses based on 28S rDNA, our sequences for T. laticaudi resolved relatively distant from that for representatives of Dinurus Looss, 1907, the type-genus, rendering the subfamily polyphyletic. Tubulovesicula laticaudi resolved closest to data for the type-species of the Plerurinae Gibson & Bray, 1979, but that subfamily is also polyphyletic. These findings lead us to re-evaluate an alternative classification considered by Gibson & Bray (1979). We propose restricting the Dinurinae for forms with a permanent sinus-organ (Dinurus, Ectenurus Looss, 1907; Erilepturus Woolcock, 1935; Paradinurus Vigueras, 1958; Qadriana Bilqees, 1971) and resurrect the Mecoderinae Skrjabin & Guschanskaja, 1954 for forms with a temporary sinus-organ (Mecoderus Manter, 1940, Allostomachicola Yamaguti, 1958, Stomachicola Yamaguti, 1934 and Tubulovesicula).