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Introduction
Polystomatids of anuran hosts in the Palaearctic realm are represented by the genera Diplorchis Ozaki, 1931 and Polystoma Zeder, 1800. In this geographical area Polystoma is represented by 18 species found in the anuran genera Hyla, Pelobates, Pseudepidalea, Rana and Rhacophorus. During a study of the helminth fauna of the eastern spadefoot Pelobates syriacus Boettger in Turkey some specimens were found to be infected with a new species of Polystoma. Two Polystoma species are known from the host Pelobates Wagler, namely Polystoma fuscus Biserkov & Hadjinikolova (1993) from Pe. fuscus (Laurenti) from Bulgaria and P. pelobatis Euzet & Combes, 1966 from Pe. cultripes (Cuvier) from France. Polystome species known from Turkey include P. macrocnemis Biserkov et al., 2001 from Rana macrocnemis Boulenger, P. skrjabini Bukvarov, 1984 from Hyla arborea (Linnaeus), P. viridis Euzet, Combes & Batchvarov, 1974 from the frog Pseudepidalea viridis (Laurenti) (formerly known as Bufo viridis Boulenger) (see Yildirimhan et al., 2006a, b). The specimens recovered from Pe. syriacus differed substantially from the other polystomes known to infect the host Pelobates and this is a formal description of the new species.
Materials and methods
Collection and examination of frogs
A total of 91 specimens of Pe. syriacus were collected from three localities in Turkey. Twenty-five specimens were collected from Bursa (40°16'N, 29°02'E) during May 1995, 24 specimens from the Edirne (41°51'N, 26°38'E) during May 2000, 19 specimens from the Seydisehir (37°20'N, 32°06'E) during July 2000, seven specimens during August 2002 and 16 specimens during June 2003.
Prior to dissection, frogs were anaesthetized by injecting them with 100 mg/kg body weight sodium pentobarbitone. Mature parasites were obtained from the urinary bladders and fixed under cover slip pressure for 24 h in 70% ethyl alcohol. Flattened specimens were stained in iron acetocarmine (Georgiev et al., 1986), dehydrated, cleared and mounted in Entellan. Specimens were later remounted using Canada balsam.
Mounted parasites were examined using a Nikon (IMP, Boksburg, South Africa) E800 microscope fitted with a Nikon DXM1200 digital microscope camera connected to a PC. Measurements were taken using Eclipse network software (Nikon). All parasite measurements are in micrometres. Measurements are presented as the mean, followed by the range in parentheses and based...