Department of Natural Sciences, Middle Georgia State University, Macon, Georgia 31206.
Department of Parasitology, Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam.
J Parasitol. 2024 Dec 1;110(6):590-606. doi: 10.1645/24-33.
The Cyathocotylidae Mühling, 1896 is a small but broadly distributed family of digeneans parasitic in a wide range of vertebrate definitive hosts, from fish to mammals. Despite existing taxonomic questions, only a few studies have generated DNA sequence data from cyathocotylids, and only a single publication included sequence data from a cyathocotylid parasitic in snakes. Four genera are known to infect snakes: GogateaLutz, 1935, Szidatia Dubois, 1938, MesostephanoidesDubois, 1951, and SerpentostephanusSudarikov, 1961. Members of these genera were known from only Asia and Africa. In the present study, we describe 2 new species of Gogatea from snakes in Australia and 1 from Vietnam. The new species from Vietnam described herein is the first member of the genus that lacks a ventral sucker. We used partial sequences of the nuclear large ribosomal subunit (28S) and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) genes to explore phylogenetic relationships among cyathocotylids and species differentiation. In addition, this is the first report of a cyathocotylid from snakes in Australia, thus posing interesting questions regarding the dispersal and historical biogeography of these parasites. Cyathocotylid genera from snakes have a long, convoluted taxonomic history. The genera Gogatea, Mesostephanoides, and Szidatia were distinguished from each other based on very small morphological differences. Therefore, the validity of Szidatia and Mesostephanoides was often questioned in the literature. Based on the detailed morphological analysis of our freshly collected high-quality specimens and comparison with published information, we synonymize Mesostephanoides and Szidatia with Gogatea.
Cyathocotylidae Mühling, 1896 是一个小型但广泛分布的双腔科，寄生在从鱼类到哺乳动物的各种脊椎动物终末宿主中。尽管存在分类学问题，但只有少数研究从 Cyathocotylidae 中生成了 DNA 序列数据，并且只有一篇出版物包括了寄生在蛇类中的 Cyathocotylidae 的序列数据。已知有四个属感染蛇类：Gogatea Lutz, 1935、Szidatia Dubois, 1938、Mesostephanoides Dubois, 1951 和 Serpentostephanus Sudarikov, 1961。这些属的成员仅在亚洲和非洲被发现。在本研究中，我们描述了来自澳大利亚蛇类的 2 个 Gogatea 新种和 1 个来自越南的新种。本文描述的来自越南的新种是该属中第一个没有腹吸盘的成员。我们使用核大亚基核糖体（28S）和线粒体细胞色素 c 氧化酶亚基 I（COI）基因的部分序列来探讨 Cyathocotylidae 之间的系统发育关系和物种分化。此外，这是首次报道来自澳大利亚蛇类的 Cyathocotylidae，因此提出了关于这些寄生虫传播和历史生物地理学的有趣问题。来自蛇类的 Cyathocotylidae 属具有悠久而曲折的分类历史。Gogatea、Mesostephanoides 和 Szidatia 这三个属是基于非常小的形态差异来区分的。因此，Szidatia 和 Mesostephanoides 的有效性在文献中经常受到质疑。基于我们新收集的高质量标本的详细形态分析以及与已发表信息的比较，我们将 Mesostephanoides 和 Szidatia 与 Gogatea 同义。
