Reply to the comment by H.A. Pinto and A.L. de Melo on "Taxonomic comments on South American species of Philophthalmus Loos, 1899 (Trematoda: Philophthalmidae)"
Abstract
Would we consider Philophthalmus lucipetus and Philophthalmus gralli as valid entities, several indices would indicate that the specimens found in Peru should be classified as P. gralli. These indices include 1) the geographical distribution of P. lucipetus (Europe and Asia) and P. gralli (Americas and Asia), 2) the observational and experimental evidence of M. tuberculata permissivity for P. gralli but not P. lucipetus infection, and 3) the possible argument for establishing the Peruvian samples as a new species based on follicular shape of vitellaria (when compared to the tubular ones of P. gralli and P. lucipetus type samples) is considered as irrelevant since the vitellaria shape was found to be variable among the particular philophthalmid species by R.M.
Pinto et al.