Raillietina Fuhrmann, 1920

Sasaki, Mizuki, Anders, Jason Lee & Nakao, Minoru, 2021, Cestode fauna of murid and cricetid rodents in Hokkaido, Japan, with assignment of DNA barcodes, Species Diversity 26, pp. 255-272 : 265-266

Genus Raillietina Fuhrmann, 1920 7. Raillietina sp.

The adult tapeworms of Raillietina sp. (nos. 18AK99, JA304, Para33, Para36, Para38, Para42, Para44, and Para45) were found from Ap. speciosus in Asahikawa and Otofuke. The following description was made based on one specimen ( Fig. 6G, H ): Scolex 0.38 wide. Neck absent. Suckers oval, four in number, 0.12–0.14 long by 0.12–0.13 wide, with numerous hooks on the inside of the sucker. Rostellum 0.72 long by 0.08 wide, armed with about 80 tiny hooks, 0.014 – 0.016 in length. Proglottids trapezoidal. Mature proglottids much shorter in length than width, 0.13–0.15 long by 1.1– 1.2 wide. Genital pore unilateral, opened on anterior half of lateral margin. Testes oval, 0.28–0.35 long by 0.33–0.39 wide, divided into two groups by female gonad. Number of testes 26–29, less in the side of genital pore. Ovary lobed, 0.08–1.10 long by 0.14–0.18 wide. Vitellarium lobed, postovarian, 0.40–0.43 long by 0.51–0.84 wide.

All the isolates of Raillietina sp. were subjected to DNA sequencing of cox1. The resultant sequences were completely identical to one another, and not matched by any known sequences in DNA databases. In contrast, the 28S rDNA sequence of Raillietina sp. showed 99.9% similarity (1554 out of 1555 nucleotides identical) to that of Raillietina coreensis Honda, 1939 (the database accession number KP171525 , published only in databases). This species was first described from Apodemus agrarius (Pallas, 1771) in Korea ( Honda 1939), and subsequently found from Apodemus mice in Hokkaido ( Iwaki et al. 1994c) and the northern part of Honshu (Asakawa et al. 1997; Ito and Itagaki 2003). The cox 1 sequence of R. coreensis from Korea (the type locality) is necessary for the species-level identification of Raillietina sp. in Hokkaido.

Figures

Fig. 6. Adult tapeworms of Paranoplocephala kalelai, Catenotaenia sp., and Raillietina sp. A, Scolex of P. kalelai; B, mature proglottid of P. kalelai; C, gravid proglottid of P. kalelai; D, scolex of Catenotaenia sp.; E, mature proglottid Catenotaenia sp.; F, gravid proglottids of Catenotaenia sp.; G, scolex of Raillietina sp.; H, mature proglottids of Raillietina sp. Scale bars: A–C, E, H, 500µm; D, G, 200µm; F, 1mm.