Anenterotrema eduardocaballeroi ( Freitas, 1960 ) Caballero, 1960

Lunaschi, Lía I. & Drago, Fabiana B., 2011, A revision of Anenterotrema Stunkard, 1938 (Digenea: Anenterotrematidae) and a key to its species, Zootaxa 2775, pp. 50-64 : 54-55

Anenterotrema eduardocaballeroi ( Freitas, 1960) Caballero, 1960

( Figure 2 ; Table 2)

Syns. Edcaballerotrema eduardocaballeroi Freitas, 1960 ; Anenterotrema freitasi Caballero, 1964 (new synonymy); A. auritum of Zdzitowiecki & Rutkowska (1980) (new synonymy)

Material studied. 2 paratypes CHIOC 23.655b, 23.655c. Ex Eumops glaucinus Wagner (Molossidae) (type host); small intestine, Instituto de Botânica, São Paulo (type locality), Brazil.

Hosts. Molossidae : E. glaucinus [as Eumopis glaucinus (Wagner) ]; Molossus rufus rufus Geoff.; Molossus molossus molossus Pallas (as M. major crassicaudatus ); Phyllostomidae : Phyllostomus elongatus (Geoff.) ; Micronycteris hirsuta (Peters) ; Vespertilionidae : Histiotus velatus (Geoff.) ; Eptesicus fuscus dutertreus (Gervais) ; Mormoopidae : Mormoops blainvillei Leach.

Distribution. Brazil (São Paulo State; Pernambuco State: Recife, Escada; Colombia (Department of Valle del Cauca: Santiago de Cali); Costa Rica (Alajuela Province: Río Grande de Atenas); Cuba (Las Villas Province: Sierra de la Esperanza, Oriente Province: Felicidad Yateras).

References. Freitas (1960, 1961); Freitas & Dobbin (1962); Caballero (1960, 1964); Ubelaker et al. (1977); Zdzitowiecki & Rutkowska (1980); Lunaschi (2002); Caro et al. (2003).

Redescription. [Based on 2 whole–mounts] Body small, fusiform, with maximum width at level of ventral sucker, 512– 648 x 232–266. Forebody 1.2–1.3 times smaller than hindbody; forebody 178–251 long; hindbody 226–295 long. Ratio of body length to forebody length 1:2.6–2.9. Tegument unarmed. Anterior end with transverse fold of body wall dorsal to oral sucker, extending laterally, or ventro–laterally, as 2 papilliform processes. Oral sucker spherical, large, subterminal, 105–119 x 112–117. Ventral sucker spherical, similar in size to oral sucker, in middle third of body, 100–102 x 119. Sucker-width ratio 1:0.94–0.98. Pharynx, oesophagus and intestinal caeca absent. Gonads in middle third of body. Testes small, oval, symmetrical, entire; right testis 44 x 34 –39; left testis 44 x 34 –37. Ratio of body length to testis length 1:12–15. Ratio of ventral sucker length to testis length 1:2.3. Cirrus sac oval smaller than ventral sucker, entirely, or almost entirely anterior to ventral sucker, containing long, coiled internal seminal vesicle, pars prostatic, prostatic cells and cirrus, 82–83 x 60 –64. Ratio of ventral sucker length to cirrus sac length 1:1.2. Genital pore median, halfway between suckers. Ovary median or submedian and post-testicular, or median and inter-testicular, larger than testes, 48–72 x 63 –87. Mehlis’ gland median, lateral to ovary; seminal receptacle not seen; Laurer’s canal short. Vitellarium follicular, posterior to gonads, partly masked by loops of the uterus, restricted to right lateral field of body. Uterus long, occupying all available space in hindbody and extending laterally to ventral sucker, contains numerous operculate eggs, with yellow coloration, small in relation to body-size, 29– 33 x 18–19; ratio of body length to egg length 1:16–22. Metraterm long, sinuous, strongly muscular, 116–121 long, opposite of cirrus sac, opens in shallow genital atrium. Excretory pore and excretory vesicle not seen.

Remarks. This species was originally described as Edcaballerotrema eduardocaballeroi Freitas, 1960 , and designed the type species of Edcaballerotrema Freitas, 1960. This genus was characterized by having symmetrical vitelline folicles located lateral to cirrus sac, in the forebody. Later, this species was described with the same vitelline distribution by Freitas (1961), Freitas & Dobbin (1962) and Travassos et al. (1969). Caballero (1960) synonymized Edcaballerotrema with Anenterotrema , because he considered the location of vitellarium a specific character, not a diagnostic character at the generic level. Yamaguti (1971) confirmed this synonymity and remarked on a misinterpretation of the location of vitelline follicles by these authors, who mistook the vitelline follicles for parenchymal cells situated anterolateraly to the ventral sucker. Portes Santos & Gibson (1998) and Lunaschi (2002) described the vitellarium of this species as formed by a small bunch of follicles located in the hindbody. The present study allowed us to confirm the observations of the latter authors, and extending the distribution of vitelline follicles on the right region of hindbody.

On the other hand, Caballero (1964) described Anenterotrema freitasi Caballero, 1964 on the basis of a single specimen collected in the small intestine of M. hirsuta in Costa Rica (type material lost). However, the figures 3 and 4 provided by Caballero (1964) clearly showed cells associated with a dorsal thickening, such as is seen in the type material of A. auritum ( Fig. 1 F), thus confirming the presence of a transverse fold at the level of the oral sucker. Moreover, the morphological features, metrical characters and ratios of A. freitasi are concordant with those reported by Freitas (1960, 1961) and Freitas & Dobbin (1962) for A. eduardocaballeroi (Table 2). Therefore, we consider the specimen from Costa Rica described by Caballero as belonging to A. eduardocaballeroi and that A. freitasi is a synonym of the former species.

As noted above, the specimens described as A. auritum by Zdzitowiecki & Rutkowska (1980) agree with the morphology and metrical data of A. eduardocaballeroi (Table 2). These specimens were described with one or two groups of vitelline follicles; although, according to figure 4a–c in Zdzitowiecki & Rutkowska, the presence of two groups of follicles is related to the degree of contraction of the hindbody. Moreover, these specimens have a smaller body size, testes and eggs than those of A. auritum described by Stunkard (1938) and Castiblanco & Vélez (1982) (Tables 1, 2). Therefore, we conclude that the specimens described as A. auritum by Zdzitowiecki & Rutkowska collected from M. blainvillei and E. fuscus dutertreus in Cuba are conspecific with A. eduardocaballeroi .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Anenterotrema auritum. A – D, holotype. A – B, dorsal view. C – D, anterior end showing the transverse fold of the body wall. E – G, paratype. E, ventral view. F, anterior end. G, detail of the terminal genitalia. Scale bars: A – B: 200 μm; C and E: 100 μm; D and F: 50 μm.

FIGURE 2. Anenterotrema eduardocaballeroi. A – B – D – F, paratypes CHIOC 23.655 c. C, paratype CHIOC 23.655 b. A – B, dorsal view. C, ventral view. D, anterior end of specimen CHIOC 23.655 c. E, enlarged view of the proximal female genitalia of specimen CHIOC 23.655 c. F, enlarged view of the terminal genitalia of specimen CHIOC 23.655 b. Scales: A – C: 100 μm; D – F: 50 μm.