A New Species of Ascocotyle (Trematoda: Heterophyidae) from the South American Sea Lion, Otaria flavescens, Off Patagonia, Argentina

HERNÁNDEZ-ORTS, JESÚS SERVANDO; MONTERO, FRANCISCO ESTEBAN; CRESPO, ENRIQUE ALBERTO; GARCÍA, NÉSTOR ANÍBAL; RAGA, JUAN ANTONIO; AZNAR, FRANCISCO JAVIER

JOURNAL OF PARASITOLOGY

AMER SOC PARASITOLOGISTS

Año: 2012 vol. 98 p. 810 - 816

0022-3395

ABSTRACT: We describe a new heterophyid species, Ascocotyle (Ascocotyle) patagoniensis n. sp., based on specimens collected fromthe intestines of the South American sea lion Otaria flavescens from Patagonia (Argentina). Ascocotyle (A.) patagoniensis n. sp. isdistinguished from the other species of the subgenus by the number of circumoral spines, which are arranged in 2 rows of 18 to 23. Thenew species also differs from the other species in having a gonotyl without papillae. The specimens exhibited the widest seminalreceptacle described for a species of this subgenus. Species of the subgenus Ascocotyle usually infect fish-eating birds or mammals infreshwater or brackish habitats. Ascocotyle (A.) patagoniensis n. sp. is the first species of the subgenus described from a marinemammal. However, no metacercariae of Ascocotyle spp. were found in 542 marine teleosts from 20 species collected in the samelocality. The life cycle of the marine species from the Ascocotyle-complex infecting pinnipeds remains elusive