Spasskylepis, SCHALDYBIN, 1964

SPASSKYLEPIS SCHALDYBIN, 1964

Amended diagnosis (modified after Gulyaev et al., 2004): Small cestodes with serial homonomous maturation. Strobila can consist of one to four series of proglottides. Proglottides slightly craspedote, young wider than long, gravid longer than wide. Scolex with rudimentary rostellum. Suckers elongate, inside dorsal andventralbothrium-likedepressions.Osmoregulatory canals without transverse anastomoses. Genital pores dextral. Testes three, in a triangle, one poral and two antiporal. Cirrus-sac crosses midline of proglottis. Cirrus armed, internal seminal vesicle absent, external seminal vesicle elongate. Ovary trilobed. Vitellarium entire, postovarian. Seminal receptacle indistinct. Uterus sacciform. Holarctic.

Type species: Spasskylepis ovaluteri Schaldybin, 1964 (syn.: Spasskylepis pheodorovi Karpenko, 1984 ).

Other species: Spasskylepis tiunovi Lykova , Mel'nikova & Karpenko, 2005; Spasskylepis rauschi Gulyaev, Dokuchaev & Lykova, 2010 .

Remarks: Spasskylepis ovaluteri is morphologically similar to Ditestolepis diaphana ( Fig. 3A, D), therefore S. ovaluteri was often misidentified as D. diaphana ( Vaucher, 1971; Genov, 1984; Haukisalmi, 1989; Gulyaev, 1991). Gulyaev et al. (2004) redescribed S. ovaluteri and restored the validity of the genus Spasskylepis , which was later confirmed by molecular phylogeny ( Haukisalmi et al., 2010). One of the main differences between species of Ditestolepis and Spasskylepis is the uterus development. The uterus of D. diaphana transforms from initially horseshoe-shaped into sacciform, while the uterus of S. ovaluteri is sacciform from the very beginning of its development ( Fig. 4G).