A new species of Creptotrematina (Trematoda: Allocreadiidae) from characid fishes of Brazil: Morphological and molecular data

Abstract

A new species of Creptotrematina Yamaguti, 1954 was collected from characid fishes, Astyanax fasciatus (Cuvier, 1819) and Astyanax lacustris Lucerna &Soares, 2016 from the Batalha River in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The new species most closely resembles Creptotrematina aguirrepequenoi, but differs by the elongated shape of vitelline follicles, the extension of these follicles in the posterior end of body and the fact that they are not confluent. The morphological differences were confirmed through molecular data. Three specimens were sequenced, and molecular analyses were based on the internal transcribed spacers 2 and D1-D3 domains of the 28S ribosomal RNA gene. The obtained topologies showed the new species as a sister taxon of C. aguirrepequenoi, a species originally described from Astyanax mexicanus in Mexico, and later found in Astyanax aeneus in Costa Rica. Isolates of the new species are reciprocally monophyletic, and genetic distance values are similar to those observed in other species pairs within Allocreadiidae. These findings corroborate that the genus Creptotrematina is mostly a parasite of characids, and widely extended across the Americas, with representative species occurring between Argentina and northern Mexico.