A new species of Urocleidoides Mizelle & Price 1964 (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) parasite of Hemiodus orthonops Eigenmann & Kennedy, 1903 (Hemiodontidae) from the upper Paraná River floodplain.

ABSTRACT

During the study of ectoparasites (Platyhelminthes) of fish in the floodplain of the Upper Paraná River - Brazil, a new species of Urocleidoides, present in the gill filaments of Hemiodus orthonops (Hemiodontidae), is described using morphological description and molecular data from the mitochondrial region of cytochrome c oxidase, subunit 1 (COI) and the partial region of the 28S rDNA gene. Urocleidoides luquei n. sp. differs from all its congeners by the presence of a filament that joins the accessory piece to the base of the male copulatory organ and resembles U. paradoxus and U. surianoae. Phylogenetic analyses using molecular data revealed that U. luquei n. sp. forms a paraphyletic group concerning the other Urocleidoides species. In this way, as well as contributing to the description of a new species, we seek to encourage and contribute to the increase in research using integrative taxonomy, thus making it possible to elucidate some unresolved questions about the genus Urocleidoides.