First detection ofin muskrat in East Asia and a description ofn. sp.

Abstract

The East Asian region has seen the first discovery of trematodes of the genusin the muskratWhen studying the morphology of the trematodes, two morphotypes were identified among individuals ofspp., the differences between which at the morphological level are equivalent to those between species. The affiliation of one of these morphotypes with the bird parasitewas established based on partial sequences of genes coding for 28S ribosomal RNA,, andmitochondrial DNA. Based on the analysis of these three markers, we classified individuals with this morphotype as, despite some morphological features of worms infecting birds. At the same time, the worms with second morphotype had no interspecies differences based on the first two markers, while thegene confirmed the separation of these samples on a species level. These trematodes were described as a new species,n. sp., based on both morphological and molecular data.