MOLECULAR EVIDENCE FOR THE SYNONYMY OF 3 SPECIES OF PARAGONIMUS, PARAGONIMUS-OHIRAI MIYAZAKI, 1939, PARAGONIMUS-ILOKTSUENENSIS CHEN, 1940 AND PARAGONIMUS-SADOENSIS MIYAZAKI ET-AL., 1968

The Paragonimus chirai group, named after P. ohirai Miyazaki, 1939, co nsists of three nominal species. Paragonimus iloktsuenensis Chen, 1940 and P. sadoensis Miyazaki et al., 1968, the other members of the grou p, were proposed primarily because of perceived differences in metacer carial morphology and/or host preferences. It has long been recognized that adults of the three were virtually indistinguishable. With the a pplication of genetic techniques, it has become clear that the three f orms can exchange genes freely, and that differences in metacercarial morphology constitute a polymorphism probably due to a single gene inh erited in Mendelian fashion. Here, additional genetic data (DNA sequen ces from the second internal transcribed spacer of the nuclear ribosom al gene cluster and from the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subuni t I gene) are presented in support of the synonymy.