Abstract
Examination of 4 specimens of the leopard whipray Himantura leoparda, a dasyatid stingray from northern Australia, led to the discovery of 3 new species of Rhinebothrium. Rhinebothrium leopardensis n. sp., Rhinebothrium nandoi n. sp., and Rhinebothrium ruhnkei n. sp. are described, increasing the diversity of the genus to 51 species globally. All 3 new species differ from their congeners in terms of testis number, proglottid number, loculus number, and size. With respect to one another, R. leopardensis n. sp. has bothridia that are weakly constricted at their centers and has a greater number of proglottids than the other 2 species (93-108 vs. 11-15, and 48-78, respectively). Rhinebothrium nandoi n. sp. is the smallest of the 3 species found in H. leoparda (3.6-5 vs. 10-15 mm and 10.1-15.8 mm in total length [TL], respectively) and bears bothridia that are constricted at their centers. Rhinebothrium ruhnkei n. sp. bears bothridia that are conspicuously constricted at their centers and has more testes than R. leopardensis and fewer than R. nandoi (7-10 vs. fewer than 7 and 21-33, respectively). Before this study, 56% (27 of 48) of Rhinebothrium species had been described from the freshwater river systems of South America and the marine waters surrounding South and North America. In contrast, despite the remarkably diverse nature of its batoid fauna, only 19 species were known from the Indo-Pacific region. Our work increases this number to 22, emphasizing the highly underestimated nature of Rhinebothrium diversity in this region of the globe. The discovery of these 3 new species was not unexpected, given the relatively poor status of our current knowledge of the cestode faunas of dasyatid stingrays in the Indo-Pacific region, and given the fact that it is common for a single batoid species to host 2 or more species of Rhinebothrium. Our results suggest that additional work on the cestode faunas of the batoids, especially dasyatids, from the Indo-Pacific region is likely to be highly productive in terms of contributing to the knowledge of Rhinebothrium diversity.
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