A new species of the nematode genus Copemania (Nematoda: Trichostrongylida), parasitic in the western quoll, Dasyurus geoffroii and short-nosed bandicoot, Isoodon obesulus from south-western Western Australia

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 7 years ago

ABSTRACT – Copemania darwini sp. nov. is described from the small intestine of Dasyurus geoffroii Gould, 1841 (type host) and Isoodon obesulus (Shaw, 1797) from Collie, Western Australia. The new species is distinguished from its only congener, C. obendorfi Durette-Desset and Beveridge, 1981, found in Dasyurus maculatus (Kerr, 1792) in Victoria in the shape of the spicules, which lack a hook-shaped termination to the principal branch in the new species and in the vulvar appendages which are linguiform in the new species. The new species represents the first record of the genus in Western Australia and is one of the few trichostrongyloid nematodes known from Australian marsupials which occur in both dasyurids and peramelids.

KEYWORDS: Copemania, new species, Nematoda, Trichostrongylida, Dasyurus, Isoodon, morphology, taxonomy.