Opecoeloides Odhner, 1928, is represented by 19 valid species found in marine fish, of which five have been reported in Brazil. Specimens of
Opecoeloides pedicathedrae Travassos, Freitas & Bührnheim, 1966, were collected from the intestine of smooth weakfish
Cynoscion leiarchus, a new
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Opecoeloides Odhner, 1928, is represented by 19 valid species found in marine fish, of which five have been reported in Brazil. Specimens of
Opecoeloides pedicathedrae Travassos, Freitas & Bührnheim, 1966, were collected from the intestine of smooth weakfish
Cynoscion leiarchus, a new host record, from off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They were examined using light and confocal laser microscopy. New partial sequences of 18S and 28S rDNA genes of
O. pedicathedrae were obtained. Bayesian inference analysis on the partial 28S rDNA dataset resulted in a phylogram in which
O. pedicathedrae formed a well-supported clade with
Opecoeloides fimbriatus and
Opecoeloides furcatus. The K2p distance between
O. pedicathedrae and
O. fimbriatus was 0.34%, with 3 divergent nucleotides; and between
O. pedicathedrae and
O. furcatus was 4.18%, with 38 divergent nucleotides. A Bayesian-inference phylogenetic tree based on the 18S rDNA recovered two main clades with five subfamilies. A clade of Opecoelinae showed that
O. pedicathedrae was closer to
Pseudopecoeloides tenuis; the K2p distance between these species was 2.14%, with 28 divergent nucleotides. The new nucleotide sequences presented inclusion of a phylogenetic analysis that can help to clarify the understanding of this complex taxon.
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