Brachylaima succini sp. nov. (Trematoda: Brachylaimidae) from Succinea lauta, an amber snail in Hokkaido, Japan

Through a continuous survey of trematodes in land snails of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, we have discovered four species of the genus Brachylaima (Trematode: Brachylaimidae). Among them, Brachylaima ezohelicis, Brachylaima asakawai, and Brachylaima lignieuhadrae have already been described. Each of the three species is a strict specialist in selecting a particular species of land snail as the first intermediate host. In this report, we propose the fourth species, Brachylaima succini sp. nov., based on ecological, morphological, and phylogenetic considerations. Sporocysts and metacercariae of the new species were found exclusively from Succinea lauta, which is known as an amber snail indigenous to Hokkaido. Phylogenetic trees of nuclear 28S rDNA and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) demonstrated it to be distinct from the other sympatric species. Although metacercariae of the new species possessed unique morphological characters, adult worms experimentally raised from the metacercariae were similar to those of B. ezohelicis and B. Iignieuhadrae. Natural definitive hosts of the new species are unknown, but the existence of common coxl haplotypes from fardistant localities suggests a possibility that birds are involved as the definitive hosts. Findings of amber snails coinfected with both sporocysts of the new species and Leucochloridium perturbatum also support the involvement of birds.