Abstract
A checklist of tapeworms (Cestoda) of vertebrates (fishes, birds and mammals) in Finland is presented, based on published observations, specimens deposited in the collections of the Finnish Museum of Natural History (Helsinki) and the Zoological Museum of the University of Turku, and additional specimens identified by the present author. The checklist includes 170 tapeworm species from 151 host species, comprising 447 parasite species/host species combinations. Thirty of the tapeworm species and 96 of the parasite/host species combinations have not been previously reported from Finland. The total number of tapeworm species in Finland (170 spp.) is significantly lower than the corresponding figure for the Iberian Peninsula (257 spp.), Slovakia (225 spp.) and Poland (279 spp.). The difference between Finland and the other three regions is particularly pronounced for anseriform, podicipediform, charadriiform and passeriform birds, reflecting inadequate and/or biased sampling of these birds in Finland. It is predicted that there are actually ca. 270 species of tapeworms in Finland, assuming that true number of bird tapeworms in Finland corresponds to that in other European countries with more comprehensive knowledge of the local tapeworm fauna. The other main pattern emerging from the present data is the seemingly unexplained absence in (northern) Fennoscandia of several mammalian tapeworms that otherwise have extensive distributions in the Holarctic region or in Eurasia, including the northern regions. Previously unknown type specimens, that is, the holotype of Bothrimonus nylandicus Schneider, 1902 (a junior synonym of Diplocotyle olrikii Krabbe, 1874) (MZH 127096) and the syntypes of Caryophyllaeides fennica (Schneider, 1902) (MZH 127097) were located in the collections of the Finnish Museum of Natural History.
Highlights
There are no comprehensive checklists or other faunistic reviews of tapeworms (Cestoda) of vertebrates in northern Europe, the cestodes of fishes have been recently reviewed in Latvia (Kirjušina and Vismanis 2007) and Finland (Pulkkinen and Valtonen 2012)
There is a slight overlap in the tapeworm faunas of the three main host groups, because the life-cycles of diphyllobothriids and Cladotaenia globifera (Batsch, 1786) (Paruterinidae) include hosts representing two different vertebrate classes
The checklist includes 30 tapeworm species and 96 parasite species/host species combinations that have not been previously reported from Finland, marked as “Present study” in the references/source column
Summary
There are no comprehensive checklists or other faunistic reviews of tapeworms (Cestoda) of vertebrates in northern Europe, the cestodes of fishes have been recently reviewed in Latvia (Kirjušina and Vismanis 2007) and Finland (Pulkkinen and Valtonen 2012). The cestode fauna of rodents and shrews has been intensively studied in northern Europe (see, for example, Haukisalmi 1986, 1989, Haukisalmi et al 1994, Bugmyrin et al 2003, Anikanova et al 2007). The cestode fauna of birds and large mammals in northern Europe has received surpirisingly little attention, with the exception of a recent series of studies on taeniid cestodes of carnivores in Finland and Sweden (Lavikainen et al 2006, 2011, 2013, Haukisalmi et al 2011). Tapeworm taxonomy has long flourished in Russia and the former USSR, resulting in major faunistical and systematical reviews of cestodes of all vertebrate groups.
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