Spalania

SPALANIA KARPENKO, 1998

Amended diagnosis (modified after Karpenko & Chechulin, 2000): Small cestodes with serial heteronomous maturation. Strobila can consist of one to four series of either male or hermaphroditic proglottides. Proglottides acraspedote. Scolex with rudimentary rostellum. Suckers expanding far beyond margins of scolex. Osmoregulatory canals without transverse anastomoses. Genital pores dextral. Cirrus-sac may reach or slightly cross, midline of proglottis. Cirrus armed with heteromorphous spines. Protrusible, armed accessory sac present. Internal seminal vesicle absent. External seminal vesicle elongate. Testes two in male and three in hermaphroditic proglottides, situated in row, one poral and two antiporal. Seminal receptacle indistinct. Ovary trilobed. Vitellarium entire, postovarian. Uterus initially horseshoe-shaped, in gravid proglottides sacciform. Asian part of the Palaearctic.

Type species: Spalania collaris (Karpenko, 1984) Karpenko, 1998 [syn.: Soricinia collaris Karpenko, 1984 ; Soricinia aporalis Karpenko, 1984 ; Ecrinolepis collaris (Karpenko, 1984) Gulyaev, 1991 ; Cucurbilepis skrjabini Sadovskaya, 1965 sensu Sawada, Harada & Oda, 1995 ].

Other species: Spalania crassisaccata ( Sawada & Asakawa, 1992) Karpenko, 1998 (syn.: Ditestolepis crassisaccata Sawada & Asakawa, 1992 ).

KEY TO THE SPECIES OF NOVOBRACHYLEPIS 1a. Number of proglottides less than 19..............................................................................................................2

1b. Number of proglottides more than 20 ...........................................................................................................3

2a. Number of proglottides 10–11; vagina S-shaped; cirrus-sac making a loop, reaching aporal osmoregulatory canals, 160–240 long; cirrus 170–200 long; eggs number 140–160................................................................ ....................................................................................................................... Novobrachylepis sorextscherskii

2b. Number of proglottides 9–11; vagina straight; cirrus-sac straight, not reaching aporal osmoregulatory canals, 95–130 long; cirrus 75–95 long; eggs number 80–100........................................................................ .............................................................................................. .................................. Novobrachylepis triovaria

3a. Vagina S-shaped; cirrus-sac 160–180 long; cirrus 250–260 long ................................................................... ......................................................................................... ........................................ Novobrachylepis gulyaevi

3b. Vagina straight; cirrus-sac 90–127 long; cirrus 80–105 long ..................................... Novobrachylepis morosovi

Remarks: The genus Spalania was established for Ecrinolepis collaris and E. crassisaccata on the basis of the presence of accessory copulatory sac of the cirrus ( Fig. 5D, E) and a peculiar type of uterus development ( Karpenko & Chechulin, 2000). The generic diagnosis of Spalania contained some erroneous information regarding the presence of a glandular organ in scolex, as well as the position of testes and development of the uterus. In addition, some authors believed that the cirrus shape and armament were not sufficient characters to justify a new genus and thus doubted the validity of Spalania . Therefore, S. collaris and S. crassisacata were returned into Ecrinolepis ( Kornienko, 2001; Mel’nikova et al., 2004, 2005; Irzhavsky et al., 2005; Lykova, 2005). However, our phylogenetic analysis has shown that these two species with the armed accessory sac form an independent clade in the phylogenetic tree, distinct from Ecrinolepis . Consequently, we consider the genus Spalania a valid taxon with the type-species S. collaris . Re-examination of S. collaris and S. crassisacata revealed the presence of two testes in male proglottides and three in hermaphroditic proglottides, in both cases situated in a transverse row. Unlike all other genera, in Spalania the initially horseshoe-shaped uterus develops into sacciform uterus during maturation by the expansion of the posterior part of the uterus.