A REVISION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN PAPILLOSE ALLOCREADIIDAE WITH INDEPENDENT CLADISTIC ANALYSES OF LARVAL AND ADULT FORMS

Abstract

Adult material of all 20 North American species of papillose allocreadiids was examined. A description and figure is given for each species; details of the cirrus sacs are presented for most species for the first time. Descriptions are emended where necessary and judgments were made on synonymies. Scanning electron micrographs of the oral sucker of 11 species are presented as is a new key to the 20 species. A cladistic analysis was performed on the group based on adult characters. The analysis indicated that the group is monophyletic on the basis of ventral papillae, and the following genera were substantiated: Bunodera Railliet, 1896, Bunoderella Schell, 1964, Crepidostomum Braun, 1900, and Paracreptotrematina Amin and Meyer, 1982. All available literature on the larval forms is summarized. Fresh larval material was collected for 6 species. Miracidial development was monitored in 5 species; scanning electron micrographs of cercariae are presented and indicate that all species possess papillae on the margin of the acetabulum. The life cycle of Bunodera mediovitellata Tsimbaliuk and Roitman, 1966 is presented for the first time. Independent cladistic analyses were attempted for miracidial and cercarial data. No miracidial characters were appropriate for the analysis, but a cercarial tree is presented. This study represents the first attempt at generation of independent cladograms for separate life cycle stages at the species level. The cercarial tree was congruent, although not identical, to the cladogram generated from adult data. A consensus tree, summarizing both cercarial and adult morphological data, is presented. Based on the monophyly of the group, it is recommended that all 20 species be placed in a single subfamily, Bunoderinae.