Phylogenetic studies explain the discrepant host distribution of Allopodocotyle heronensis sp. nov. (Digenea, Opecoelidae) in Great Barrier Reef serranids

Abstract

We report a new species of Allopodocotyle Pritchard, 1966 from the intestine of two species of Serranidae, Cromileptes altivelis and Epinephelus fuscoguttatus, from the southern Great Barrier Reef. Despite the examination of eight other species of Epinephelus from the same region this species appears anomalous in its distribution in one species of Epinephelus and the single species of Cromileptes. Molecular phylogenetic studies of the Epinephelinae suggest, however, that these two species are closely related so that the host specificity demonstrated by this species is actually stenoxenic (phylogenetically related hosts) rather than euryxenic. © 2011 Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Wien.