Pseudoleucochloridium ainohelicis nom. nov. (Trematoda: Panopistidae), a Replacement for Glaphyrostomum soricis Found from Long-Clawed Shrews in Hokkaido, Japan, with New Data on its Intermediate Hosts

Abstract

Members of the genus Glaphyrostomum Braun, 1901 (Trematoda: Brachylaimidae) are parasites of birds. However, an exception occurs in Glaphyrostomum soricis Asakawa, Kamiya and Ohbayashi, 1988, which was described from the long-clawed shrew, Sorex unguiculatus Dobson, 1890, in Hokkaido, Japan. A recent DNA barcode-based trematode survey of land snails clearly showed that Ainohelix editha (A. Adams, 1868), a bradybaenid snail indigenous to Hokkaido, serves as the first and second intermediate hosts for a species of the genus Pseudoleucochloridium Pojmańska, 1959 (Panopistidae). Its adult stage was furthermore confirmed from S. unguiculatus. A comparison of adult morphology between Pseudoleucochloridium sp. and G. soricis revealed that both should be considered the same species. However, Pseudoleucochloridium soricis comb. nov. cannot be applied because P. soricis (Sołtys, 1952) already exists as the type species of the genus. We, therefore, propose Pseudoleucochloridium ainohelicis nom. nov. as a replacement name for G. soricis.