Tamerlania melospizae n. sp. (Trematoda: Eucotylidae) with Notes on the Genus

Abstract

Skrjabin established the family EUCOTYLIDAE in 1924 to include Eucotyle Cohn (1904), Tanaisia Skrjabin (1924), and Tamerlania Skrjabin (1924). Nezlobinski (1926) added the genera Ohridia and Lepidopteria. The genus Tamerlania contains four species, T. zarudnyi Skrjabin (1924), T. meruli Nezlobinski (1926), T. bragai Dos Santos (1934), and T. japonica Yamaguti (1935). Skrjabin lists Passer montanus (Linn.), the European tree sparrow, as host for T. zarudnyi. It was collected in 1921 by the Fifth Helminthological Expedition at Taschkent, Turkestan. Kalantarian (1924) and Khitrowo-Kalantarian (1924) list Fringilla coelebs L., the chaffinch, and a woodpecker, Dendrocopus syriacus Hempr., from Erivan, Armenia. Khitrowo-Kalantarian also reports the finding of this parasite by Issaitschikow in the rook, Corvus frugilegus Brehm, from Krim. It is also recorded by Skrjabin and Massino (1925) from Monedula turrium Brehm taken near Moscow on May 21, 1921. In this reference these authors refer to the previous host recorded by Skrjabin (1924) as Passer domesticus instead of Passer montanus. T. meruli is from Turdus merula taken at Juzna, Serbia, in the Macedonian region. T. bragai is described as a parasite of Columba livia and Gallus domesticus in and near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. T. japonica was taken in the Japanese hawfinch, Coccothraustes coccothraustes japonicus Temm. and Schleg. from Mie Prefecture and in a bunting, Emberiza variabilis Temm. from Koti Prefecture, Japan. Skrjabin (1924) indicated the salient features of the genus Tamerlania to be EUCOTYLIDAE with no anterior muscular prominence (Muskelwulst) separating the head region from the remainder of the body; esophagus absent; symmetrically situated testes with entire margins, lying just inside the intestinal crura at the junction of the anterior with the middle third of the body; ovary with entire margins; vitellaria in the middle third of the body; kidney parasites of birds. The species herein described falls within the genus as defined by Skrjabin (1924), except for