A NEW SPECIES OF MEGALOPHALLUS (DIGENEA, MICROPHALLIDAE) FROM THE CLAPPER RAIL, OTHER BIRDS, AND THE LITTORAL ISOPOD LIGIA-BAUDINIANA

Megalophallus reamesi n.sp. infected the clapper rail, ruddy turnstone , black-bellied plover, and the isopod Ligia baudiniana. This precocio usly developed digenean occurred in the mid-Florida Keys, Florida, and in Pine Gay, Turks and Caicos, British West Indies, but not in numero us other examined localities from New York to Texas. It is most simila r in body size (1.0-1.6 vs 1.0-1.1 mm) and structure of its copulatory organ to M. diodontis Siddiqi and Cable, 1960, but its copulatory org an has 23-39 micropapillae rather than 12-19, the species has rudiment ary intestinal ceca rather than short fully developed ones, and an iso pod rather than a portunid crab serves as the second intermediate host . The encysted metacercaria, occurring in the hemocoel of the isopod, was typically encapsulated with host connective tissue incorporating s everal host chromatophores.