A New Species of Rhabdias (Nematoda: Rhabditida: Rhabdiasidae) from Miyakojima Island, Okinawa, Japan

Abstract

A new nematode species that is lung parasitic to a bufonid toad, Rhabdias kafunata sp. nov., is described and illustrated from Miyakojima island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Although the new species was previously identified as R. incerta Wilkie, 1930, it is clearly distinguishable from that species by the characteristics of body proportion, buccal capsule, and esophagus. Additionally, the new species differs from other congeners inhabiting East Asia and the Russian Far East in the following features: longer body length, cup-like buccal capsule, longer esophagus length, presence of thickened anterior muscular part in esophagus, cuticular inflation less prominent in region posterior to small cephalic cuticular inflation, middle part of body and tail tip, and tail long and tapering. Partial sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and 12S rDNA genes were provided as DNA barcodes for the new species.