Abstract
A new species of Heligmosomoides Hall, 1916 is proposed for nematodes collected from deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, in western Canada. The unequivocal diagnostic character for this species is the presence of two internal bursal membranes. Only four species, Heligmosomoides bullosus, Heligmosomoides douglasi, Heligmosomoides montanus and Heligmosomoides vandegrifti, are characterized as possessing a single internal bursal membrane. The genetic distance between Heligmosomoides bibullosus sp. nov., and its putative sister clade Heligmosomoides vandegrifti is congruent with their geographic separation by the mountain range of the Rockies and 4000 km; both morphological difference as well as geography and genetic distance suggest isolation among the two species. Further, H. bibullosus sp. nov. infects deer mice (P. maniculatus) whereas H. vandegrifti is frequently collected in white-footed mice (P. leucopus). Finally, this study supports the taxonomic importance of the monodelphic/didelphic condition as a diagnostic trait within the family, the paraphyly of Heligmosomoides, and reveals undocumented diversity of Heligmosomoides in Nearctic rodents of the Neotominae. The present taxon is the third species in members of this subfamily of rodents.
http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DE78368D-2CDE-4F9D-AB85-A3CE20D957F4
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Dr Sara Brant for the access to the materials in MSB that were initially sorted by M. Kinsella; Drs Gabor Racz and Scott Gardner provided collection numbers for specimens deposited in the HWML. Collection of specimens was the result of the hard work of J. Behnke, J.W. Brunt, J.A. Cook, N. Dawson, L. Delehanty, N. Dokuchae, A. Hope, A. Lahzuhtkin, S.O. MacDonald, A. Runck, A. Tsvetkova and M. Westover. E.A. Zieman provided technical assistance and P.C. Williams. E. Hoberg and J.A. Cook provided insightful criticism to an earlier version of this manuscript. Dr Ed Heist allowed the use of the Conservation Genetics sequencer at SIU. Alnaqeb was funded by the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) and a grant in aid by the Annual Midwestern Conference of Parasitologists (AMCOP).
Disclosure statement
The authors report no conflict of interest in the completion of this manuscript.
Supplemental material
Supplemental material for this article can be accessed here: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/zool_data/17.
(Cameron, Citation1937; Dikmans, Citation1940; Dujardin, Citation1845; Durette-Desset, Citation1967; Gardner & Jasmer, Citation1983; Kuns & Rausch, Citation1950; Rausch & Rausch, Citation1973; Walton, Citation1923)
Associate Editor: Dr Peter D. Olson