MESOCESTOIDES-LEPTOTHYLACUS N-SP AND THE PROBLEM OF NOMENCLATURE IN THE GENUS MESOCESTOIDES-LEPTOTHYLACUS 1863 (CESTODA, MESOCESTOIDIDAE)

  • 1 January 1980
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 31  (1) , 2-14
Abstract
M. leptothylacus sp. nov. a common parasite of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in southwest Germany, is characterized by a slender elongated cirrus pouch containing a cirrus with only one loose convolution and by approximately 90 testes surrounding the other genital organs completely, a number of them lying outside the lateral excretory canals. The decision for a new name arised from the following considerations: Goeze (1782) described Taenia lineata with characteristics of the genus only and there is no type material left by Goeze. None of the later authors could know which species was meant by T. lineata and none of the later descriptions was exact enough to adjoin it to the old name today such that all descriptions under the name of M. lineatus have to be revised. Certkova et Kosupko (1975) assigned to it a new species but did not select a neotype nor did they choose a species from the terra typica; thus the name of that species has to be altered. Goeze gave a superficial account of a cestode presumed to be a variation of T. cateniformis which was probably in Mesocestoides. The specimens apparently were not gravid so that he neither recognized the relationship to T. lineata nor could he be sure about a possible identity of the 2. Thus, the name assigned to this 2nd description, M. literatus (Batsch, 1786) is a nomen dubium.

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