Morphological characteristics of the acanthocephalan Polymorphus minutus (Goeze, 1782), which was collected from duck Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus in Czech Republic, are described. The mitochondrial (mt) genome P. sequenced, with a total length 14,149 bp, comprising 36 genes including 12 protein coding (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) and two ribosomal (rrnL rrnS). This is similar to mt genomes ot...

Trophically-transmitted parasites often change the phenotype of their intermediate hosts in ways that increase their vulnerability to definitive hosts, hence favouring transmission. As a "collateral damage", manipulated hosts can also become easy prey for non-host predators that are dead ends for the parasite, and which are supposed to play no role in transmission strategies. Interestingly, inf...

Larval helminths often share individual intermediate hosts with other larval worms of the same or different species. In the case of immature acanthocephalans capable of altering the phenotype of their intermediate hosts, the benefits or costs of host sharing can be evaluated in terms of increased or decreased probability of transmission to a suitable definitive host. Competitive interactions am...

This paper provides a detailed redescription of the adult and the first morphological description of all juvenile stages of Scutovertex sculptus. Specimens from four European countries, Austria, Germany, France and Spain were investigated. The species specific characters are the broadened posterior notogastral setae (lp, h1–h3), the slightly broadened anterior notogastral seta (dm), the gastron...

Paratylenchus shenzhenensis n. sp. was collected from the rhizosphere soil of Anthurium andraeanum in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. The new species is characterized by having a female with a small body (249-302 μm), well developed stylet (17-21 μm), rounded head with four submedian lobes and lip-region with a slight depression at the oral area, small post-vulval uterine sac with a few ve...

Holotype and paratype of Ascocotyle (Phagicola) rara Arruda, Muniz-Pereira et Pinto, 2002, a heterophyid trematode recently described on the basis of two worms collected by Lauro Travassos in 1921 in the intestine of Ixobrychus exilis (Gmelin) from Brazil, were studied. The morphology of the worms revealed their conspecificity with Ascocotyle (Phagicola) angeloi Travassos, 1928 found in the sam...

attempts were made to present a practical key for identification of small strongyles, the identification ofwhich seems to be a difficult task to do. 4000 nematodes collected from the large intestine of horses anddonkeys were examined. 18 species of small strongyles of horse and 15 of donkey were found. from 6species of large strongyles found in both animals, we only dealt with 3 of triodontopho...