The taxonomic and phylogenetic status of digeneans from the genus Timoniella (Digenea: Cryptogonimidae) in the Black and Baltic seas

0500018 - BC 2019 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Kvach, Yuriy - Bryjová, A. - Sasal, P. - Winkler, H. M.
The taxonomic and phylogenetic status of digeneans from the genus Timoniella (Digenea: Cryptogonimidae) in the Black and Baltic seas.
Journal of Helminthology. Roč. 92, č. 5 (2018), s. 596-603. ISSN 0022-149X. E-ISSN 1475-2697
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GBP505/12/G112
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : actinopterygii gobiidae * parasite communities * platyhelminthes * trematodes * acanthostomidae * sparidae
OECD category: Zoology
Impact factor: 1.436, year: 2018

Timoniella spp. are cryptogonimid flukes (Digenea: Cryptogonimidae) that parasitize the guts of fish in brackish waters. Timoniella imbutiforme, a species from the Mediterranean Sea, is recorded in the Black Sea, while T. balthica has been described from the Baltic Sea. In this paper, we clarify the taxonomic status of Timoniella populations in the Baltic and Black seas. Adults and metacercariae of Timoniella spp. were sampled from localities in the Mediterranean Sea (France), Black Sea (Ukraine) and Baltic Sea (Germany) and subjected to molecular and morphological analysis, including Bayesian phylogenetic reconstruction based on concatenated sequences of ITS1-ITS2-28S. This allowed us to construct a new key to species of the genus Timoniella. Our results suggest that T. balthica forms part of the Boreal-Atlantic relict fauna of the Black Sea and should now be considered a junior synonym of T. imbutiforme.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0292187