Morphological and molecular characterization of <i>Neodiplostomum vaucheri</i> Dubois, 1983 (Digenea: Diplostomidae) from <i>Trachops cirrhosus</i> (Spix, 1823) (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in the southern Peruvian Amazon using third-generation seque

<i>Neodiplostomum vaucheri</i> Dubois, 1983 is a digenean trematode originally described from the intestine of the woolly false vampire bat, <i>Chrotopterus auritus</i> (Peters, 1856), in the northwestern Peruvian Amazon. Decades later, it was also reported from the fringe-lipped bat, <i>Trachops cirrhosis</i> (Spix, 1823), in Ecuador. During a helminthological survey of phyllostomid bats at the Kawsay Biological Station in Madre de Dios, southeastern Peruvian Amazonia, specimens of <i>Neodiplostomum</i> Railliet, 1919 were recovered from the intestine of <i>T. cirrhosus.</i> Morphological comparisons with the holotype confirmed these specimens as conspecific with <i>N. vaucheri.</i> Phylogenetic inference supported the morphological identification, recovering the Peruvian isolate with an <i>N. vaucheri</i> isolate from another South American region within the same clade, with strong support (ML = 90; BI = 0.9587). The observed genetic divergence (4.47% under the Kimura two-parameter model and 4.27% based on uncorrected p-distances) in the partial cox1 sequence may indicate cryptic diversity, as previously noted in congeners. This represents the first integrative characterization of a digenean from a bat host in Peru, contributing to our understanding of parasite diversity in neotropical chiropterans. Furthermore, the use of third-generation sequencing technology (Oxford Nanopore) proved effective for generating reliable partial gene sequences, underscoring its applicability in molecular helminthology.