Molecular and morphological identification of two new African species of Dugesia (Platyhelminthes,Tricladida, Dugesiidae) from Cameroon |
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| Authors: | Abdel Halim Harrath Ronald Sluys Lamjed Mansour Guy Lekeufack Folefack Waleed Aldahmash Saleh Alwasel |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia;2. University of Tunis El Manar, Higher Institute of Applied Biological Sciences of Tunis, 2092, Tunis, Tunisia;3. Department of Taxonomy and Systematics, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands;4. Laboratory of Parasitology and Ecology, Department of Animal Biology and Physiology, University of Yaounde I, Yaounde, Cameroon |
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| Abstract: | The paper describes two new Dugesia species collected from the rivers Messassi and Ntsetsensooh in Cameroon, representing the first planarian flatworms documented from this country. Based on morphological data, the new species Dugesia bijuga Harrath & Sluys, sp. nov. is characterized mainly by the presence of two diaphragms, a barrel-shaped penis that is traversed by numerous ducts of penis glands and is provided with a short nozzle, and the presence of two atrial folds. The other new species, Dugesia pustulata Harrath & Sluys, sp. nov., is characterized mainly by absence of a penis bulb, presence of a large, elongated and weakly muscular seminal vesicle, and by the ventroposterior section of the bursal canal being thrown into distinct folds. The phylogenetic position of the two new species was determined through a molecular phylogenetic tree, based on a mitochondrial and a nuclear gene, including species from the major geographical range of distribution of the genus Dugesia. The phylogenetic tree revealed that the Cameroon lineage does not constitute a monophyletic group with the other Afrotropical species; it also showed that the African continent may house a great diversity of Dugesia species that still remains to be discovered. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:007441A5-F037-4950-9F5B-AD6ED12A40ED |
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| Keywords: | freshwater flatworm Cameroon Dugesia morphology molecular phylogeny Cox1 18SrRNA |
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