Acta Parasitologica, Vol. 52, No. 3, 2007, 206–212. DOI: 10.2478/s11686-007-0025-0 Rodney A. Bray (1), Thomas H. Cribb (2), Andrea Waeschenbach (1) and D. Timothy J. Littlewood (1) –
A new species of Stephanostomum Looss, 1899 (Digenea, Acanthocolpidae) with a bizarre oral sucker: S. adlardi sp. nov.
from the common coral trout Plectropomus leopardus (Lacepède, 1802) (Perciformes, Serranidae) from Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef
(1) Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK;
(2) Centre for Marine Studies and Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
*Corresponding author: rod.bray@adslmaster.com
ABSTRACT
A new species of Acanthocolpidae, Stephanostomum adlardi is described from the serranid Plectropomus leopardus from Lizard
Island in the northern Great Barrier Reef. It differs from all previously described acanthocolpids in the structure of the oral sucker
which is extended into dorsal and ventral lobes each bearing a row of spines. A phylogenetic tree estimated from combined
nuclear small and partial large ribosomal RNA gene sequences shows that, despite the unusual oral sucker structure, the species
is a true member of the genus Stephanostomum. The molecular results also suggest that Monostephanostomum nolani is derived
from within Stephanostomum.
KEY WORDS:
Digenea, Acanthocolpidae, Stephanostomum adlardi sp. nov., Plectropomus leopardus, Great Barrier Reef, Monostephanostomum, phylogeny