Musculoskeletal and nervous systems of the attachment organ in three species of Diplectanum (Monogenea: Dactylogyroidea).

The taxonomy of Diplectanum Diesing, 1858, a genus of monopisthocotylean monogeneans, remains unsettled and needs to be revised based on new morphological criteria. Recent studies in monopisthocotyleans have shown that the muscle arrangement in the posterior attachment organ (haptor) differs between congeneric species and can be used as an additional criterion in genus-level taxonomy. To explore the possibility of using the haptoral musculature and nervous system in the taxonomy of Diplectanum, we conducted a detailed confocal-microscopy study of three species of Diplectanum (D.