Diplostomes from the brown pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis (Pelecanidae), from the Galveston, Texas area, including two new species of Bursacetabulus gen. n.
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abstract
During a study of digeneans of shorebirds from the Galveston, Texas, area of the Gulf of Mexico, brown pelicans, Pelecanus occidentalis, were found to be infected with 2 species of a new genus of Diplostomidae, Bursacetabulus pelecanus sp. n. and B. macrobursus sp. n. Bursacetabulus gen. n. can be distinguished from all other genera of Diplostominae by having an inconspicuous, pouchlike tribocytic organ that contains portions of the uterus and vitellaria, a suckerlike copulatory bursa, and ceca terminating some distance anterior to the posterior end of the body. The new genus is most similar to Tylodelphys but has a much shorter hind body, the vitellaria do not extend past the testes in the hind body, and it lacks a prepharynx, genital cone, and highly structured tribocytic organ. Bursacetabulus macrobursus sp. n. can be distinguished from B. pelecanus sp. n. by having a larger body size and a large bell-shaped skirt around the copulatory bursa. One of the brown pelicans also harbored Bolbophorus confusus, not previously reported from this host.
