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Disentangling taxonomy of Biacetabulum (Cestoda, Caryophyllidea), parasites of catostomid fishes in North America: proposal of Megancestus gen. n. to accommodate B. carpiodi

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Abstract

A new genus, Megancestus n. gen., is proposed to accommodate the caryophyllidean tapeworm Biacetabulum carpiodi Mackiewicz, 1969 from carpsuckers and quillback (Carpiodes spp.) in North America. This species is not closely related to other species of Biacetabulum Hunter, 1927 and is transferred to a newly erected genus. This new genus is typified by the possession of a small body (total length of 3.1–7.5 mm) with a scolex that bears a pair of large acetabulum-like loculi, two pairs of shallow lateral loculi, and a slightly convex apical disc, testes arranged in one or two layers, oval, thick-walled cirrus-sac, well-developed external seminal vesicle, separate gonopores, H-shaped ovary, few median vitelline follicles, and the uterus extending by a single loop anterior to the cirrus-sac. Megancestus differs from all Nearctic caryophyllidean genera (family Capingentidae), including Biacetabulum, by vitelline follicles dorsal to the ovary that connect the preovarian and postovarian vitelline fields. The most closely related Hunterella Mackiewicz et McCrae, 1962 differs by shape of the scolex (tholate, i.e., devoid of any loculi), dumbbell-shaped ovary and the uterus not extending anterior to the cirrus-sac. Megancestus carpiodi (Mackiewicz, 1969) n. comb. is the only species of the genus and it is a stenoxenous parasite, which has been found only in the river carpsucker (Carpiodes carpio—type host), quillback (Carpiodes cyprinus) and highfin carpsucker (Carpiodes velifer) (Catostomidae: Ictiobinae) in the lower and middle Mississippi basin.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Steve Curran, Florian Reyda (both USA) and Roman Kuchta (Czech Republic) for help with collecting fishes in the USA, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. This study was partly supported by the Grant Agency VEGA (No. 2/0126/20), Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth (project No. LTAUSA18010) and the Institute of Parasitology (RVO: 60077344). Stays of M.O. and T.S. in North America in 2013 and 2017, respectively, were enabled by the Fulbright Commission. Technical help of Martina Borovková, Institute of Parasitology, BC CAS, České Budějovice, is much appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Parasitology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Dalibor Uhrovič & Mikuláš Oros

  2. University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Dalibor Uhrovič

  3. Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Tomáš Scholz & Olena Kudlai

  4. Institute of Ecology, Nature Research Centre, Akademijos 2, 08412, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Olena Kudlai

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  1. Dalibor Uhrovič
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  4. Mikuláš Oros
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Correspondence to Mikuláš Oros.

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Uhrovič, D., Scholz, T., Kudlai, O. et al. Disentangling taxonomy of Biacetabulum (Cestoda, Caryophyllidea), parasites of catostomid fishes in North America: proposal of Megancestus gen. n. to accommodate B. carpiodi. Parasitol Res 120, 1993–2001 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07188-7

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