A morphological and molecular phylogenetic study of proteocephalid tapeworms of the genus Acanthotaenia von Linstow, 1903, parasites of monitors (Varanidae), was carried out. The type species, A. shipleyi von Linstow, 1903, which was originally described based on an immature specimen from Sri Lanka, is redescribed based on new material from the type host, Varanus salvator, in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Vietnam, and its neotype is designated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStrongyluris calotis is a heterakid nematode in the large intestine of agamid lizards (Reptilia: Sauria: Agamidae) from the Oriental Region. The standard light microscopic definition of the species counts the "caudal papillae" as 10 pairs on male worms. However, previous work from our group using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on the heterakid from agamid lizards in Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore revealed that this counting contained a pair of phasmids and that two pairs of postcloacal papillae were completely fused to form a pair of united papillae, thus resulting in "10 pairs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new cosmocercid nematode species, Cosmocercoides tonkinensis n. sp., is described from the scale-bellied tree lizard (Acanthosaura lepidogaster) in the northern and central parts of Vietnam.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe myxosporean genus Unicapsula (Multivalvulida: Trilosporidae) is defined as having a spore with three unequal shell valves and polar capsules, of which one is prominent and the two other polar capsules are rudimentary. Genetic characterization of members of the genus, currently 11 nominal species, is, at present, unsatisfactory yet when comparing to the closely related genus Kudoa (Multivalvulida: Kudoidae). In the present study, we characterized long ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) sequences of three Unicapsula spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF