A New Species of Digenea (Trematoda: Brachycladiidae) from the Gervais' Beaked Whale, Mesoplodon Europaeus, with Comments on Other Cetacean Liver Flukes

• Main Author: Murray D Dailey
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Balaenoptera physalus; Physeter macrocephalus; Sperm whale
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1044.3607; http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/assets/pdfs/vetsci-stranding/scientific-contributions/2007/dailey-2007.pdf

ABSTRACT: Cetitrema meadi sp. n. (Trematoda: Nasitrematinae), a liver fluke from Gervais' beaked whale (Mesoplodon europaeus), is described. This species is easily distinguished from the one other member of the genus by the size and shape of body and testes. Lecithodesmus spinosus, Margolis and Pike, 1955, described from the bile ducts of Balaenoptera physalus, is transferred to the genus Brachycladium, e.g., Brachycladium spinosus (Margolis and Pike, 1955) n. comb., and is reported as a new host record from the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758). Additional new host and distribution records are reported for the liver flukes, Oschmarinella sobolevi Skrjabin, 1947, Brachycladium pacificum (Dailey and Perrin, 1973) Gibson, 2005, and Brachycladium sp., from 3 species of cetaceans, Mesoplodon europeaeus, Globicephala macrorhynchus, and Ziphius cavirostris, respectively.