Digeneans from intertidal molluscs of SW Iceland

The fauna of digenean daughter-sporocysts, rediae, cercariae and metacercariae infecting molluscs Littorina spp., Onoba aculeus. Nucella lapillus and Epheria vincta has been studied in the Skerjafjordur and Grindavik regions of SW Iceland. In total, intramolluscan stages of 19 digenean species were recorded; 14 of them are new for Iceland and one of them, a microphallid named Cercaria islandica I, was unknown. A description of this new microphallid cercaria is provided. In addition, the identification and separation of the intramolluscan stages of some microphallid, renicolid and echinostomatid species are discussed. Consideration is given to difficulties encountered when identifying digenean species found on the coasts of European countries. Problems have arisen largely because larval and adult stages have been described and named independently and in isolation, synonyms are common and many "definitive" descriptions are inadequate or incomplete.