Lepocreadioidea (Digenea: Trematoda) of southern Africa, including a new genus and species of Lepidapedidae infecting the galjoen, Dichistius capensis (Cuvier) (Centrarchiformes: Dichistiidae) from off Namibia

Abstract

Investigations into the digenean trematode fauna of southern African marine fishes revealed representatives of three families of the superfamily Lepocreadioidea Odhner, 1905. A new taxon, requiring the proposal of a new genus, Cutmoreia galjoen n. gen. et n. sp., is described from the intestine of the galjoen, Dichistius capensis (Cuvier) (Dichistiidae), collected from off the shore between Langstrand and Swakopmund, Namibia. A combination of morphology and molecular sequence data place this taxon in the Lepidapedidae Yamaguti, 1958, representing the first member of this family to be recorded from the southeastern Atlantic African coast. Examinations of brown mussels, Perna perna (Linnaeus) (Mytilidae) from the Garden Route National Park (Tsitsikamma section), South Africa revealed the presence of metacercariae in the mantle tissue; molecular sequencing of these intermediate stages found these to match those of C. galjoen n. sp. from Namibia. Pseudaephnidiogenes rhabdosargi (Prudhoe, 1956) (Aephnidiogenidae Yamaguti, 1934) was recollected from off South Africa for the first time since 1985; we provide the first molecular sequence data for this species, along with those of a species of Opechona Looss, 1907 (Lepocreadiidae Odhner, 1905), the first record of a species of this genus from South Africa.