The adult male and female of Polyplax guatemalensis sp. n. are described from the sigmodontine murid rodent Peromyscus grandis Goodwin collected in the Reserva de Biosfera, Sierra de las Minas, Guatemala, at an elevation of 2,200 m. The new species extends the number of known native species of Polyplax in the New World to four with none of them recorded south of Panama. Polyplax guatemalensis is morphologically most closely related to Polyplax auricularis which parasitises a cluster of closely related New World sigmodontine rodents from Canada to Panama. These two species can be distinguished from all other known species of Polyplax by the presence of partially overlapping, subtriangular, anterior abdominal plates in both sexes. Polyplax guatemalensis can be separated from P. auricularis by the abundant tergal abdominal setae and longer pseudopenis in males, and by the presence of one fewer anterior abdominal, subtriangular tergite and sternite in females.
During investigations of gill ectoparasites (Platyhelminthes) parasitising freshwater fish from Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Panama) and southeastern Mexico (Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas), the following dactylogyrid monogenoidean were found: Urocleidoides simonae sp. n. from Profundulus punctatus (Günther) (type host), Profundulus balsanus Ahl, Profundulus guatemalensis (Günther), Profundulus kreiseri Matamoros, Shaefer, Hernández et Chakrabarty, Profundulus labialis (Günther), Profundulus oaxacae (Meek), Profundulus sp. 1 and Profundulus sp. 2 (all Profundulidae); Urocleidoides vaginoclaustroides sp. n. from Pseudoxiphophorus bimaculata (Heckel) (type host) and Poeciliopsis retropinna (Regan) (both Poeciliidae); and Urocleidoides vaginoclaustrum Jogunoori, Kritsky et Venkatanarasaiah, 2004 from P. labialis, Profundulus portillorum Matamoros et Shaefer and Xiphophorus hellerii Heckel (Poeciliidae). Urocleidoides simonae sp. n. differs from all other congeneric species in having anchors with well-differentiated roots, curved elongate shaft and short point. Urocleidoides vaginoclaustroides sp. n. most closely resembles U. vaginoclaustrum, but differs from this species mainly in the shape of its anchors (i.e. evenly curved shaft and short point vs curved shaft and elongate point extending just past the tip of the superficial anchor root). The complexity of potential hosts for species of Urocleidoides and their effect on its distribution on profundulid and poeciliid fishes are briefly discussed., Edgar F. Mendoza-Franco, Juan Manuel Caspeta-Mandujano, Guillermo Salgado-Maldonado, Wilfredo Antonio Matamoros., and Obsahuje bibliografii