Homeokotorella, Palm & Haseli, 2023

Palm, Harry Wilhelm & Haseli, Mohammad, 2023, Tentaculariids (Cestoda, Trypanorhyncha) of elasmobranchs from Malaysian Borneo, Zoosystema 45 (18), pp. 513-529 : 516

Genus Homeokotorella n. gen.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:F6E41D7B-9BC3-472D-AFD6-30753C995818

TYPE SPECIES. — Homeokotorella anterioporus n. gen., n. sp.

E. — The generic name refers to the homeomorphous hooks of the tentacular armature of the type species.

DIAGNOSIS. — Scolex elongated, craspedote. Four elongated bothria, without thickened rims, lateral and posterior bothrial margins not fused with peduncle. Bothrial pits absent; hamulate spinitriches along bothrial margins present. Pars bothrialis overlapping pars bulbosa, pars vaginalis shorter than pars bothrialis. Pars bulbosa with short bulbs. Retractor muscles originating at base of bulbs; prebulbar organs and gland-cells inside bulbs absent. Tentacle sheaths straight. Four elongated, slender tentacles, without basal swelling. Basal and metabasal tentacular armature homeoacanthous, homeomorphous; hooks solid. Characteristic basal armature absent, first rows of basal armature increasing in size. Strobila acraspedote, proglottids wider than long, euapolytic; cirrus unarmed, coiled; cirrus sac lateral and elongate, runs along anterior end of proglottid; genital atrium submarginal, located at anterior end of proglottid; seminal vesicles absent; testes numerous, distributed around central ovary, not reaching anterior to cirrus sac, in single layer; ovary positioned centrally; vitelline follicles circumcortical. Parasitic in dasyatid batoids.

REMARKS

Within the Tentaculariidae , unlike in Tentacularia Bosc, 1797 with the bothria entirely fused with the scolex peduncle and Nybelinia Poche, 1926 , Heteronybelinia Palm, 1999 , Mixonybelinia Palm, 1999 and Reimeriella Palm, Morales-Ávila, Galván-Magaña & Haseli, 2020 with a robust, muscular scolex and triangular bothria with fused margins, the new genus possesses elongate bothria with free lateral and posterior margins. Homeokotorella n. gen. therefore closely resembles the two monotypic genera Kotorella Euzet & Radujkovic, 1989 and Kotorelliella Palm & Beveridge, 2002 since the members of these three genera possess an elongate scolex, four bothria each with free lateral and posterior margins, a short pars bulbosa, and a homeoacanthous metabasal armature. Nonetheless, the homeomorphous, rather than heteromorphous hooks of the metabasal and basal tentacular armature easily distinguish it from Kotorella and Kotorelliella . The erection of this genus is consistent with the taxonomy within Tentaculariidae , where each genus possesses its own armature pattern.