Morphological identification and molecular characterization of lecithodendrium Aswani N. SP. (Digenea-Lecithodendridae)‎ from bats in Aswan, Egypt

الملخص EN

Bats attract zoologists' attention due to their well-documented vulnerability to a wide array of animal and human diseases.

during the current parasitological survey of bat parasites from October 2016 to March 2020, lecithodendrium Aswani N.

SP.

was detected and described based on morphological and molecular characters from the liver tissue of rhinopoma hardwickii cystops, establishing a new infection site and locality record in Aswan governorate.

light and scanning electron microscopy studied the morphology and surface topography, respectively.

L.

Aswani n.

sp.

was detected in 1% (5 / 500) bats.

also, molecular analyses showed that the partial ribosomal ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region sequence deposited to GenBank database under the accession number MW598491 as distinct species related to other lecithodendrium sequences.

phylogenet-ic study proved a strong connection between the new species' DNA and family lecithodendrii-dae.