The family Rhopalothylacidae (Cestoda: Trypanorhyncha) is reviewed. The type species, Rhopalothylax gymnorhynchoides Guiart, 1935, is redescribed from the type specimens and belongs within the genus Pintneriella Yamaguti, 1934, previously described only from the plerocercus. Rhopalothylax therefore becomes a junior synonym of Pintneriella. The adult of Pintneriella musculicola Yamaguti, 1934 is described for the first time, from the shark Carcharias taurus Rafinesque from Australia. Pintneriella is characterised by two bothridia, a typical heteroacanthous armature, a unique, bipartite external seminal vesicle and a uterus deviated porally, terminating at a uterine pore. It belongs within the Heteracanthoidea but is distinguishable both from the Eutetrarhynchidae and the Gilquiniidae, the two families which it most closely resembles. Cladistic analyses align Pintneriella within the clade containing the families Gilquiniidae, Gymnorhynchidae and Molicolidae rather than with the Eutetrarhynchidae. The family Rhopalothylacidae is therefore retained provisionally to accommodate Pintneriella within the Heteracanthoidea. The second genus of the Rhopalothylacidae, Clujia Guiart, 1935, is unrecognisable from its description and cannot be redescribed from its holotype. It is therefore considered a genus inquirendum.
This study revises the originally monotypic genus Afrogyrodactylus Paperna, 1968 (Monogenea), the species of which infect alestid fish (Characiformes) in Africa, and includes new records of these parasites from three geographically distant countries, Senegal, Sudan and South Africa. Morphology of opisthaptoral hooks and bars and nuclear ribosomal DNA data revealed three Afrogyrodactylus species. Afrogyrodactylus girgifae sp. n. is described from the fins of the Sudanese nurse tetra, Brycinus nurse (Rüppell), and A. kingi sp. n. presents from the gill arches of the South African sharptooth tetra, Micralestes acutidens (Peters), whereas a previously undescribed Afrogyrodactylus sp. occurred on the fins of B. nurse from Senegal. All three species differ conspicuously from the only one known species of this genus, A. characinis Paperna, 1968, by the dimensions of their haptoral hard parts. Detailed morphological and molecular descriptions and comparisons are presented.
The Oriental helotrephid genus Idiotrephes Lundblad, 1933, is taxonomically revised. Species discrimination is based on male genitalia and female terminalia. Three species groups are recognized. The I. chinai group contains I. chinai Lundblad, 1933 (type species; from Sumatra, Borneo, and West Malaysia) and three newly described species; I. asiaticus sp. n. (from Vietnam, Thailand, and west Malaysia); I. yupae sp. n., and I. polhemusi sp. n. (both from Thailand). The I. maior group contains I. maior Papáček, 1994; I. meszarosi Papáček, 1995 (both from Vietnam), and I. hainanensis sp. n. (from Hainan, China). The I. thai group consists of two newly described species from north and northeast Thailand, I. thai sp. n. and I. shepardi sp. n. In addition, some features of biology and morphology of the ovipositor are also included.
The Poecilimon ornatus group has an exclusively European distribution and includes the largest species in the genus. A revision of the taxa belonging to this group in Bulgaria and Macedonia (Central and Eastern Balkan Peninsula) is presented. Nine taxa described from Bulgaria are synonymised with 3 previously known species, as follows: Poecilimon ornatus (= P. mistshenkoi marzani, syn. n., P. mistshenkoi tinkae, syn. n., P. mistshenkoi vlachinensis, syn. n.), P. affinis s. str. (= P. mistshenkoi mistshenkoi, syn. n., P. affinis ruenensis, syn. n., P. affinis rilensis, syn. n., P. affinis medimontanus, syn. n., P. harzi, syn. n.) and P. hoelzeli (= P. kisi, syn. n.). The synonymy of P. poecilus with P. affinis and the subspecific status of P. affinis komareki are confirmed. One species, Poecilimon jablanicensis, sp. n., is described as new to science. A tabulated key, lists and maps of all known localities and oscillograms of the songs of all the species in this group are presented. The phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary trends in the Poecilimon ornatus group are discussed.
A new genus, Ritacestus, is proposed to accommodate Ritacestus ritaii (Verma, 1926) comb. n. (syn. Proteocephalus ritaii), a parasite of the catfish Rita rita (Hamilton) in India. The new genus, which is placed in the Gangesiinae, is characterized by (i) a small, subspherical scolex formed by four large lobes separated from one another by longitudinal grooves, with a large, widely oval to pyriform rostellum-like apical organ, larger than suckers and possessing an apical hemispherical depression; (ii) paramuscular and cortical position of some vitelline follicles (most follicles are situated medullary); (iii) ventral and dorsal bands of vitelline follicles usually uninterrupted ventral to terminal genitalia and reaching to the posterior margin of proglottides; (iv) the vagina always anterior to the cirrus-sac; (v) a large size of the body (length up to 51 cm); and (vi) development of the uterus of type 2. In its morphology, especially shape of the scolex and apical organ, and paramuscular and cortical position of some vitelline follicles, Ritacestus resembles Postgangesia Akhmerov, 1969, but differs in the presence of a genital atrium (both genital pores of Postgangesia are separate), the anterior position of the vagina (almost always posterior in the latter genus), position of vitelline follicles in cross sections (dorsal and ventral bands in Ritacestus versus only a lateral band in the latter genus), and dorsal excretory canals indistinguishable in mature and gravid proglottides of R. ritaii (well developed in Postgangesia spp.). The type and only species of the genus, R. ritaii, is redescribed on the basis of new material from the type host from the Ganges River basin in India and its neotype is designated.
Supplementary files for a comparative study of word-formation without the addition of derivational affixes (conversion) in English and Czech.
The two .csv files contain 300 verb-noun conversion pairs in English and 300 verb-noun conversion pairs in Czech, i.e. pairs where either the noun is created from the verb or the verb is created from the noun without the use of derivational affixes. In English, the noun and verb in the conversion pair have the same form. In Czech, the noun and verb in the conversion pair differ in inflectional affixes.
The pairs are supplied with manual semantic annotation based on cognitive event schemata.
A file with the Appendix includes a list of dictionary definition phrases used as a basis for the semantic annotation.
Among populations of the Miniopterus bats of western Palaearctic, intraspecific variation has not been well documented. Herein we investigate sexual and age variation of these populations using two approaches – linear and geometric morphometrics. We analysed Moroccan (M. maghrebesnis), western and eastern European (M. schreibersii), Levantine (M. schreibersii), and east-Afghanistani (M. cf. fuliginosus) specimens; variation was compared between sexes of the particular specimen sets of three above mentioned Miniopterus spp. and between four age cohorts of
M. schreibersii samples. The results showed in all examined population sets males to be generally larger in size than females, the exception being the east-European animals. Significatly the most divergent sexes were those from eastern Afghanistan, the Levant and eastern Europe. The differences found between sexes in as well as between examined population sets can
be attributed to different life histories and/or to food competition. Weak correlations between patterns of sexual dimorphism and the newly proposed western Palaearctic classification of the Miniopterus bats suggest only a limited contribution of sexual variation to morphological variation in general. Certain aspects of age variaton were found in all examined morphological characters except the non-metric traits, which in turn indicates the importance of these traits for identification of the particular taxon across age categories.
Sexually dimorphic features of adult males and females of Soricidex dimorphus, a species unparalleled in its dimorphism by any described representative of the family Demodecidae, are compared by scanning electron microscopy. The account of sexual dimorphism in S. dimorphus is preceded by a review of sexually dimorphic features in other demodecid genera. Minute constituents of general morphology of demodecid mites such as claws, solenidia and spines of legs or palps, dorsal podosomal tubercles, and integumental slits and pores, part of which are reported and/or shown in scanning electron micrographs for the first time, are also receiving detailed attention.
Subulurid nematodes identified as Subulura halli Barreto, 1918 were collected from the endangered bird Otis tarda Linnaeus (Gruiformes: Otididae) in China. A detailed redescription of the hitherto poorly known species is presented using both light and, for the first time, scanning electron microscopy. Previously unreported and erroneous morphological features of taxonomic significance are revealed. This species can be readily distinguished from its congeners by the relatively long oesophagus (1.47-1.92 mm long, representing 10.6-16.9% of body length), the number and arrangement of male caudal papillae (11 pairs in total, arranged as five pairs of precloacal and six pairs of postcloacal papillae), the equal length of spicules (1.35-1.52 mm long, representing 10.7-13.7% of body length) and the presence of a small medioventral, precloacal papilla in the male.
Long-eared bats of the genus Plecotus are widespread over most of temperate Eurasia, marginally reaching the African continent and Macaronesia. Previously, all African populations were assigned to one species, P. auritus, and later to P. austriacus. We analysed museum specimens of African long-eared bat populations using both morphologic and genetic techniques. Based on morphological evidence we recognise four well-defined allopatric populations in northern Africa. They differ in fur coloration, skull morphology and bacular traits. The molecular data support a division of the African populations into at least three well-separated evolutionary lineages. With a combination of these data we define three species of Plecotus occurring in Africa (incl. the Canary Islands) and describe a new subspecies. Small, very pale greyish-brown Egyptian long-eared bats (P. christii Gray, 1838) inhabit desert and semi-deserts habitats of eastern Sahara (Libyan Desert, Nile Valley of Egypt and northern Sudan). Smaller to medium-sized, dark brown Ethiopian long-eared bats (P. balensis Kruskop et Lavrenchenko, 2000) inhabit the Ethiopian Highlands above 2000 metres a. s. l. This form represents the only Afro-tropical species of Plecotus. Large, dark greyish Canarian long-eared bats (P. teneriffae teneriffae Barret-Hamilton, 1907) occur on the three western islands of the Canarian Archipelago. A medium-sized greyish-brown Gaisler’s long-eared bat, P. teneriffae gaisleri subsp. n., is described from the Mediterranean region of Cyrenaica, north-eastern Libya. Due to the lack of substantial morphological differences we preliminarily consider the Maghrebian population of long-eared bats to be consubspecific with P. teneriffae gaisleri subsp. n. The systematic position of the population of Cape Verde Islands remains uncertain.