Monogenea of Chinese marine fishes. XVIII. Two monocotylids, including a new species, from the blotched fantail ray Taeniurops meyeni (Elasmobranchii: Dasyatidae) in the South China Sea

Abstract

Two monogenean species are recorded from a blotched fantail ray, Taeniurops meyeni (Müller et Henle) (Dasyatidae), kept in a public aquarium at the Guangzhou Ocean World. Heterocotyle taeniuropi sp. n. was obtained from the gills. It is similar to Heterocotyle similis Neifar, Euzet et Ben Hassine, 1998 and H. scotti Neifar, Euzet et Ben Hassine, 1998, both of which have a similar male copulatory organ, but it can be distinguished from these two species by aspects of the morphology of the male copulatory organ, which is tubular, straight or slightly curved with a sclerotized accessory piece and an asymmetrical funnel-shaped opening at the proximal end, and recurved at the distal end. Dendromonocotyle pipinna Chisholm et Whittington, 2002, which is a new record for Chinese waters, was collected from the body surface of the same host. Its main features are almost the same as in the original description, except that it exhibits a variable number of marginal papillae.