PHYLOGENY AND SYSTEMATICS OF CYATHOCOTYLID DIGENEANS (DIGENEA: DIPLOSTOMOIDEA) PARASITIZING SNAKES WITH DESCRIPTION OF THREE NEW SPECIES OF GOGATEA FROM AUSTRALIA AND VIETNAM.

The Cyathocotylidae Mühling, 1896 is a small but broadly distributed family of digeneans parasitic in a wide range of vertebrate definitive hosts, from fish to mammals. Despite existing taxonomic questions, only a few studies have generated DNA sequence data from cyathocotylids, and only a single publication included sequence data from a cyathocotylid parasitic in snakes. Four genera are known to infect snakes: GogateaLutz, 1935, Szidatia Dubois, 1938, MesostephanoidesDubois, 1951, and SerpentostephanusSudarikov, 1961.

Jumping continents and major host lineages: phylogeny and diversity of the enigmatic Cryptotropidae (Platyhelminthes: Digenea).

Members of several genera in the digenean superfamily Microphalloidea, namely , , , and , are characterized by an unusual dorsal position of the genital atrium. In the absence of phylogenetic data, their systematic position has been unstable. In the most recent taxonomic revision of the Microphalloidea, they were housed in three different families.

Description and Molecular Differentiation of a New Skrjabinoptera (Nematode: Physalopteridae) from Eutropis macularia (Sauria: Scincidae) in North-Central Vietnam.

Skrjabinoptera vietnamensis n. sp. is described from specimens recovered from the stomach of Eutropis macularia in north-central Vietnam.

Description and Molecular Differentiation of a New Falcaustra (Nematode: Kathlaniidae) from the Indochinese Water Dragon, Physignathus cocincinus (Squamata: Agamidae) in North-central Vietnam.

Falcaustra vietnamensis n. sp. is described from the small intestine of Physignathus cocincinus from north-central Vietnam.

Molecular phylogeny of the Cyathocotylidae (Digenea, Diplostomoidea) necessitates systematic changes and reveals a history of host and environment switches.

The Cyathocotylidae is a globally distributed family of digeneans parasitic as adults in fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals in both freshwater and marine environments. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of interrelationships among cyathocotylids is lacking with only a few species included in previous studies. We used sequences of the nuclear 28S rRNA gene to examine phylogenetic affinities of 11 newly sequenced taxa of cyathocotylids and the closely related family Brauninidae collected from fish, reptiles, birds, and dolphins from Australia, Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and South America.

Ophiotaenia bungari n. sp. (Cestoda), a parasite of Bungarus fasciatus (Schneider) (Ophidia: Elapidae) from Vietnam, with comments on relative ovarian size as a new and potentially useful diagnostic character for proteocephalidean tapeworms.

Ophiotaenia bungari n. sp. (Cestoda: Proteocephalidea) is described from the intestine of the banded krait Bungarus fasciatus (Schneider) (Ophidia: Elapidae) in Vietnam.