{"doi":"10.1080/14772000.2025.2586302","title":"Host switching at water edge: phylogeny and systematics of diplostomids (Digenea: Diplostomidae) from passeriform and cuculiform birds in South America","abstract":"Diplostomids (Digenea: Diplostomidae) most commonly parasitize fish- or frog-eating birds and mammals. In contrast, passeriform (Passeriformes) and cuculiform (Cuculiformes) birds are very rarely reported as hosts of diplostomids. In South America, representatives of these two bird orders were reported as hosts of diplostomids of the genera Neodiplostomum and Lophosicyadiplostomum. Lophosicyadiplostomum nephrocystis, the type- and only species of the latter genus considered valid, is a morphologically unusual diplostomid with a muscular apical structure associated with the oral sucker. In the present work, we studied five diplostomid taxa from passeriforms and cuculiforms in Brazil, including L. nephrocystis. Partial DNA sequences of the nuclear large ribosomal subunit (28S rRNA) and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) genes were sequenced and used for phylogenetic inference. Prior to this study, no sequences of diplostomids from these host groups were available. Based on strong molecular phylogenetic evidence as well as morphology, we synonymized Lophosicyadiplostomum with Neodiplostomum and returned L. nephrocystis to Neodiplostomum. Molecular phylogenies also demonstrated a close relationship between diplostomids from passeriforms and cuculiforms, indicating that likely a single host-switching event has resulted in a subsequent radiation and diversification of Neodiplostomum within these avian hosts. Four of the five newly sequenced species of Neodiplostomum possessed an apical structure developed to varying extents, a unique feature compared with all other diplostomids. We describe two new species, Neodiplostomum lutzi sp. nov. and Neodiplostomum cornutum sp. nov., the latter species characterized by a strongly developed oral sucker with a complex apical structure and provide re-descriptions of Neodiplostomum fastigatum and Neodiplostomum nephrocystis. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D0C5DEBD-6679-41E8-A977-38EFE0E124F8","journal":"Systematics and Biodiversity","year":2025,"id":525057,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9553,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":658912,"name":"Aneta Kostadinova","orcid":"0000-0001-7070-4968","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1399272,"name":"Simona Georgieva","orcid":"0000-0001-8887-472X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":658914,"name":"Alan Fecchio","orcid":"0000-0002-7319-0234","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":368333,"name":"Vasyl V. Tkach","orcid":"0000-0001-5084-7566","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":368332,"name":"Tyler J. Achatz","orcid":"0000-0003-2472-4372","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":21,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:50:16.562292Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}