Phylogenetic status of four new species of Acanthobothrium (Cestoda : Tetraphyllidea) parasitic on the wedgefish Rhynchobatus laevis (Elasmobranchii : Rhynchobatidae): implications for interpreting host associations
C. A. Fyler A and J. N. Caira A BA Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, 75 N. Eagleville Rd, Storrs, CT 06269-3043, USA.
B Corresponding author. Email: janine.caira@uconn.edu
Invertebrate Systematics 24(5) 419-433 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS10034
Submitted: 6 November 2010 Accepted: 24 December 2010 Published: 4 March 2011
Abstract
A recent major revision of the elasmobranchs of Australia, which expanded the described fauna from 190 to 307 species, has serious implications for our understanding of the host associations of parasites of Australian elasmobranchs. Most importantly, it questions the identities of the host records for many parasite species. This study focuses on cestodes of the tetraphyllidean genus Acanthobothrium parasitising Rhynchobatus, a batoid genus, the Australian elements of which have recently been revised. Four new cestode species are described from Rhynchobatus laevis (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) from the Northern Territory, Australia. These species differ from their ~160 congeners in several morphological respects. They differ conspicuously from their four Australian congeners also hosted by a Rhynchobatus species, all four of which (i.e. Acanthobothrium bartonae Campbell & Beveridge, 2002, Acanthobothrium gibsoni Campbell & Beveridge, 2002, Acanthobothrium lasti Campbell & Beveridge, 2002 and Acanthobothrium rhynchobatidis Subhapradha, 1955) were reported from Rhynchobatus djiddensis (Forsskål, 1775), a batoid species no longer considered to occur in Australian waters. This suggests that one or both of the other Australian members of Rhynchobatus (i.e. R. australiae Whitley, 1939 and R. palpebratus Compagno & Last, 2008) are likely candidates as hosts for one or more of the latter four species. With respect to the relationships among congeners parasitising the same host species, phylogenetic analyses of sequence data of the D1–D3 region of 28S rDNA for three of the four new cestode species support previous work suggesting that congeners parasitising the same host species are not each other’s closest relatives. This study also serves to emphasise the importance of careful scrutiny of host identities, particularly in systems such as this, in which host taxonomy is under active revision.
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