Species Griphobilharzia amoena Platt & Blair in Platt, Blair, Purdie & Melville, 1991

Museums

Regional Maps

• Griphobilharzia amoena Platt, T.R. & Blair, D. in Platt, T.R., Blair, D., Purdie, J. & Melville, L. 1991. Griphobilharzia amoena n. gen., n. sp. (Digenea: Schistosomatidae), a parasite of the freshwater crocodile Crocodylus johnstoni (Reptilia: Crocodylia) from Australia, with the erection of a new subfamily, Griphobilharziinae. Journal of Parasitology 77(1): 65-68.

  Type data:

   Holotype SAMA AHC44145 Holotype and allotype on one slide, Letaba Crocodile Farm, Stapleton Station, Northern Territory.
  Paratype(s) SAMA AHC18841 2 Paratypes on side, Letaba Crocodile Farm, Stapleton Station, Northern Territory.

  Type host:

   Crocodylus johnstoni (Krefft, 1873) [CROCODYLIDAE] (parasite found in gut washings, kidney, lung, liver and spleen)

Introduction

There has been confusion regarding the allocation of Griphobilharzia amoena to a particular family. While the species was originally assigned to the Schistosomatidae (infecting mammals and birds) on the basis of morphology, subsequent genetic analyses have revealed that the species resolves well within lineages that infect turtles (it currently resolves sister to the Plattidae) (See Bullard & Dutton, 2022). The most recent revision of the Spirorchiidae did not explicitly assign the species (and by extension, the genus) to any particular family; it appears that the authors suggest a detailed morphological study of new specimens before deciding its familial position (See Bullard et al. 2019).
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Distribution

States

Northern Territory

Ecological Descriptors

Endoparasitic (host(s): Crocodylus johnstoni Krefft, 1873 [CROCODYLIDAE] Freshwater Crocodile).

General References

Bullard, S.A., Roberts, J.R., Warren, M.B., Dutton, H.R., Whelan, N.V., Ruiz, C.F., Platt, T.R., Tkach, V.V., Brant, S.V. & Halanych, K.M. 2019. Neotropical turtle blood flukes: Two new genera and species from the Amazon River Basin with a key to genera and comments on a marine-derived parasite lineage in South America. Journal of Parasitology 105(4): 497–523

Bullard, S.A. & Dutton, H.R. 2022. Resolving the paraphyletic turtle blood flukes: Revision of Spirorchiidae Stunkard, 1921, and proposal of Carettacolidae Yamaguti, 1958, Hapalotrematidae (Stunkard, 1921) Poche, 1926, Baracktrematidae n. fam., Plattidae n. fam., and Atamatamidae n. fam. Journal of Parasitology 108(6): 553–564

History of changes