Folia Parasitologica 72:007 (2025) | DOI: 10.14411/fp.2025.007

Rhadinorhynchus villalobosi sp. n. (Acanthocephala: Rhadinorhynchidae) from the gafftopsail pompano Trachinotus rhodopus (Carangiformes: Carangidae) from the Pacific coast in Mexico

Gisela Martínez-Flores ORCID...1, 2, Luis García-Prieto ORCID...2, Alejandro Oceguera-Figueroa ORCID...2*
1 Especialización en Microscopía Electrónica en Ciencias Biológicas. Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico;
2 Laboratorio de Helmintología, Departamento de Zoología, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
* Address for correspondence: Alejandro Oceguera-Figueroa, Laboratorio de Helmintología, Departamento de Zoología, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico. Avenida Universidad 3000, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, C.P. 04510. Mexico City, Mexico. E-mail aoceguera@ib.unam.mx.

A new species of Acanthocephala is described based on specimens found parasitising the intestine of the gafftopsail pompano Trachinotus rhodopus Gill in the State of Oaxaca, off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Rhadinorhynchus villalobosi sp. n. differs from the other 25 species of the genus known from the Pacific Ocean by a combination of morphological traits, such as the fewer number of rows of hooks along the proboscis, the distribution of spines of the trunk forming two fields, the position of genital pore, subterminal in both sexes, a shorter neck and cement glands, among others. The phylogenetic analyses based on sequences of the nuclear 18S and 28S rRNA genes, as well as the mitochondrial cox1, all agree that R. villalobosi sp. n. is part of the genus, and closely related to Rhadinorhynchus trachinoti Grano-Maldonado, Sereno-Uribe, Hernández-Payán, Pérez-Ponce de León et García-Varela, 2025, a recently described Mexican species, despite the marked morphological differences between the two and being distributed in different areas.

Keywords: Taxonomy, phylogeny, thorny-headed worms, Palaeacanthocephala

Received: March 15, 2024; Revised: October 23, 2024; Accepted: November 24, 2024; Published online: February 25, 2025  Show citation

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Martínez-Flores, G., García-Prieto, L., & Oceguera-Figueroa, A. (2025). Rhadinorhynchus villalobosi sp. n. (Acanthocephala: Rhadinorhynchidae) from the gafftopsail pompano Trachinotus rhodopus (Carangiformes: Carangidae) from the Pacific coast in Mexico. Folia Parasitologica, 72, Article 2025.007. https://doi.org/10.14411/fp.2025.007
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