Morphological characterization of apharyngostrigea ibis azim, 1935 (Trematoda: Diplostomoidea) from ardea cinerea jouyi and nycticorax nycticorax in Korea

Apharyngostrigea ibis (Trematoda: Strigeidae) were obtained from the small intestine of two black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) and three grey herons (Ardea cinerea jouyi) between July 2006 and September 2018 in Daejeon metropolitan city and Kangwon province, Republic of Korea. The body is covered with a relatively thick cuticle, devoid of spines, and bipartite. The body measures at 2.3-3.33 × 0.86-1.20 mm, and the fore-body is ventrally concave. The oral sucker leads into a short esophagus that is devoid of a muscular pharynx. The worm was studied with a scanning electron microscope for the first time resulting in the detection of a pair of lappets located at the bilateral portion of the oral sucker. This is the first record of A. ibis in the Republic of Korea.