title: Varestrongylus eleguneniensis sp. n. (Nematoda: Protostrongylidae): a widespread, multi-host lungworm of wild North American ungulates, with an emended diagnosis for the genus and explorations of biogeography.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A putative new species of Varestrongylus has been recently recognized in wild North American ungulates based on the ITS-2 sequences of larvae isolated from feces during a wide geographic survey. No taxonomic description was provided, as adult specimens were not examined.
  
  
  METHODS
  Lungworm specimens were collected in the terminal bronchioles of muskoxen from Quebec, and a woodland caribou from central Alberta, Canada. The L3 stage was recovered from experimentally infected slugs (Deroceras spp.). Description of specimens was based on comparative morphology and integrated approaches. Molecular identity was determined by PCR and sequencing of the ITS-2 region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA, and compared to other protostrongylids.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Varestrongylus eleguneniensis sp. n. is established for a recently discovered protostrongylid nematode found in caribou (Rangifer tarandus), muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) and moose (Alces americanus); hosts that collectively occupy an extensive geographic range across northern North America. Adults of Varestrongylus eleguneniensis are distinguished from congeners by a combination of characters in males (distally bifurcate gubernaculum, relatively short equal spicules not split distally, a strongly elongate and bifurcate dorsal ray, and an undivided copulatory bursa) and females (reduced provagina with hood-like fold extending ventrally across prominent genital protuberance). Third-stage larvae resemble those found among other species in the genus. The genus Varestrongylus is emended to account for the structure of the dorsal ray characteristic of V. eleguneniensis, V. alpenae, V. alces and V. longispiculatus.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Herein we describe and name V. eleguneniensis, a pulmonary protostrongylid with Rangifer tarandus as a primary definitive host, and which secondarily infects muskoxen and moose in areas of sympatry. Biogeographic history for V. eleguneniensis and V. alpenae, the only two endemic species of Varestrongylus known from North America, appears consistent with independent events of geographic expansion with cervid hosts from Eurasia into North America during the late Pliocene and Quaternary.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecosystem and Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, 3280 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4Z6, Canada. gverocai@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Guilherme G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Verocai
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecosystem and Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, 3280 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4Z6, Canada. skutz@ucalgary.ca.|Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative - Alberta Node, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4N1, Canada. skutz@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: Susan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kutz
authors.affiliation: Nunavik Research Centre, Makivik Corporation, Kuujjuaq, Quebec, J0M 1C0, Canada. simardmanon@hotmail.com.|Current address: 936 rue des Prairies, apt 213, Québec, G1K 8T2, Canada. simardmanon@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Manon
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simard
authors.affiliation: United States National Parasite Collection, US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, BARC East No. 1180, 10300 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, Maryland, 20705, USA. eric.hoberg@ars.usda.gov.
authors.forename: Eric P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Hoberg
mesh_terms: D000416:Alberta; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D018509:DNA, Helminth / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D008168:Lung / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D008322:Mammals; D008681:Metastrongyloidea / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011792:Quebec; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017206:Strongylida Infections / Q000662:veterinary
chemical_list: D018509:DNA, Helminth; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer