Trichobilharzia is a genus of thread-like schistosomes with a cosmopolitan distribution in birds. Species of Trichobilharzia achieve notoriety as major etiological agents of cercarial dermatitis, or swimmer's itch. There are 40 species described in the literature, for which the majority lacks molecular sequence information. To better understand the phylogenetic relationships, diversity, species boundaries, host use, and geographic distribution of this genus, we surveyed 378 birds and over 10,000 snails from North America. The phylogenetic analysis was based on nuclear 18S, 28S rDNA, internal transcribed spacer region and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I sequence data. Specimens were recovered that could be related to 6 of the 14 described species of Trichobilharzia from North America (T. physellae, T. querquedulae, T. szidati, T. stagnicolae, T. franki, and T. brantae). An additional 5 lineages were found that could not be related directly to previously described species. Trichobilharzia brantae, transmitted by Gyraulus parvus, grouped outside the clade containing the recognized species of Trichobilharzia. A subgroup of the Trichobilharzia clade designated Clade Q was comprised of closely related species whose adults and eggs are similar, yet the European species use lymnaeids whereas the North American species use physids as snail hosts. This molecular phylogeny provides a useful framework to: 1) facilitate identification of worms, including those involved in dermatitis outbreaks; 2) test hypotheses about the evolution, diversification, host-parasite interactions and character evolution of Trichobilharzia; and 3) guide future taxonomic revision of Trichobilharzia.TrichobilharziaSkrjabin and Zakharov, 1920 is the most speciose genus within the Schistosomatidae Weinland 1858. The genus is comprised of 40 described species worldwide (Blair and Islam, 1983;Horák et al., 2002), of which 14 (Table I) have been described from North America. Members of this genus are reported to infect 5 orders of aquatic birds and 4 families of freshwater snails . Adult worms occur in the mesenteric or nasal veins of their definitive hosts, usually ducks, except in Africa where they also have been reported from other groups of aquatic birds such as grebes and ibises (Fain, 1956;Blair and Islam, 1983) and in Japan, from passerine birds (Oda, 1973). Blair and Islam (1983) and Horák et al. (2002) present the most recent reviews of this genus. The known snail intermediate hosts for most of the species are members of the basommatophoran families Lymnaeidae Rafinesque, 1815 and Physidae Fitzinger, 1833. Some species of Trichobilharzia also infect snails of Planorbidae Rafinesque, 1815, another basommatophoran family (Basch, 1966;Nassi, 1987;Rind, 1991), and the Pleuroceridae Fischer, 1885, a caenogastropod family (Ito, 1960a, b). The 14 described North American species of Trichobilharzia (Table I) Cercariae of species of Trichobilharzia were the first to be implicated in causing cercarial dermatitis or swimmer's itch (Cort, 1928...