Dr. Kassai Tibor - Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 10. (Budapest, 1977)
Parasit. Hung. 10. 1977. On the Synonyms of Bothriocephalus acheilognathi Yamaguti, 1934 Dr. Kálmán MOLNÁR Research Institute for Veterinary Science, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest "On the synonyms of Bothriocephalus acheilognathi Yamaguti, 1934, - Molnár, K. - Parasit. Hung. 10^ 61-62. 1977. ABSTRACT. Morphological and epizootological studies of Bothriocephalus species described from cyprinid hosts and consideration of the aspects of host specificity have led to the conclusion that the names B. opsalichthydis Yamaguti, 1934, B. gowkongensis Yeh, 1955 and B. phoxini Molnár, 1968 are synonyms of a single species which, by virtue of priority, should be termed as B. acheilognathi Yamaguti, 1934. Bothriocephalus acheilognathi Yamaguti, 19 34 syn. : B. opsalichthydis Yamaguti, 1934 B. gowkongensis Yeh, 1955 B. phoxini Molnár, 1968 syn. nov. Up to now four Bothriocephalus species ( B. acheilognathi Yamaguti, 1934; B. opsalichthydis Yamaguti, 1934; B. gowkongensis Yeh, 1955; B. phoxini Molnár, 1968) have been described in Europe from cyprinid hosts. Best known among these is B. gowkongensis , introduced to Europe with grasscarp imports, and affecting chiefly the common carp in this continent (MALE WITS KAY A, 1958; MUSSELIUS, 1963; RADULESCU and GEORGESCU, 1964). In Hungary the occurrence of B. gowkongensis was reported for the first time by BUZA et al. (1970). Two years earlier MOLNÁR (1968) had described a Bothriocephalus species under the name B. phoxini, from the minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus) and differentiated it from the previously known Bothriocephalus parasites on the basis of minor morphological differences and, above all, of epizootological properties. In histomorphological studies of parasites recovered from carps and minnows, MOLNÁR and MURAI (1974) demonstrated dissimilar features weighing in favour of the independence of B. phoxini. Other findings, however, indicating a considerable morphological variability of B. gowkongensis depending on the species and size of the fish host, prompted the last cited authors to reconsider the validity of B. phoxini. For this reason cross infection experiments were carried out in 1976, with typical B. gowkongensis parasites recovered from common carps, and typical B. phoxini specimens obtained from minnow. In the first experiment cyclopeans taken from a habitat free from parasite infection were infected with coracidia hatched from the eggs of adult Bothriocephalus females obtained from the gut of minnows, and were fed to carps. In the second experiment eggs of parasites obtained from carps were used for the infection of the intermediate host, which was then fed to minnows. As a result, stages showing the morphological features of carp Bothriocephalus parasites developed in the carp hosts, and vice versa. Later it was also demonstrated that the minnow population, where the original B. phoxini specimens were collected from, had become infected already after the first importation of herbivorous fishes, owing to non-observance of the quarantine. In the meantime B. gowkongensis was introduced to Austria with fish imports from Hungary, where OTTE et al. (1972) classified it as B. acheilognathi. Later KÖRTING (1975) arrived at the conclusion that the species B. opsalichthydis and B. gowkongensis are synonyms of B. acheil(il
