Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 18. (Budapest, 1985)
DESCRIPTION (all measurements are in mm): Strobila 90 to 200 long, with 300-480 segments. Maximum width 2. 5 to 4. Length: width ratio of mature segments 1:3-9, in postmature ones 1:4-8, in gravid ones 1 : 1. 3-4. Scolex 1 mm long and 0.80- 1. 12 wide. Suckers 0. 36-0. 48 in diameter. Neck discernible, 1-1. 5 long, in shorter animals with 200 segments neck is also short, 0.3-0.4 (see TENORA and MURAI, 1980 " P. blanchardi" ). Genital pores serially or in "shorter ones" irregularly alternating, opening near middle of segments margin. Genital ducts passing dorsally across longitudinal excretory canals. Ventral canal large, 0. 06-0. 160 in diameter, dorsal canal 0. 02-0. 03. Cirrus sac size in mature segments 0. 240. 28 x0.07-0.08 and 0. 300-0. 325x0. 08-0.10 in postmature ones. Cirrus sac not overlapping or only slightly overlapping ventral excretory canal. Cirrus spinose. Internal seminal vesicle attaining dimensions 0. 14x0.06 in mature, and 0.15x0.09 in postmature segments. External seminal vesicle present, 0.10-0.12x0.03, somewhat coiled. Testes varying between 35 and 60 in number in various hosts, distributed from the middle of vitelline gland (or from aporal part of ovary) to ventral aporal excretory canal, some overlapping. Testes 0.03 to 0.05 (average 0.045) in diameter. Vagina thick-walled tube, 0. 110-0. 150 long, about 0. 0 30-0. 0 50 wide in mature segments, reaching over midlength of cirrus sac. Seminal receptacle elongate, bottle-shaped, 0.30-0.60 x0. 08-0.150 in size. Ovary 0. 45 -0. 80 wide and 0.12-0.28 long in last mature segments occupying the poral half (or 2/3, exceptionally 3/4) of the internal parenchyme. Vitelline gland somewhat lobed, 0. 20-0.40 x0.08-0.15. Uterus ventrally first visible as a transverse mucous sac slightly anterior to ovary and testes, becoming reticulate and developing anterior, interior and posterior sacculations. Uterus apparently overlapping ventral longitudinal excretory canals. Eggs spherical, 0.034-0.037 (average 0. 035). Pyriform apparatus well developed. NOTE: The history of the taxonomy of P. omphalodes was described in detail in the paper by RAUSCH (1976). Many questions concerning this species have been elucidated there. Although P. omphalodes has often been reported from Europe as a parasite of different rodent species of the family Arvicolidae, the descriptions of the specimens collected are mostly lacking. If the descriptions are available, not only from Europe, but also from the U, S. A. , there are great differences in metrical and morphological data (compare for example SPASSKY, 1951, ERHARDOVÁ and RYSAVY, 1955. SCHMIDT, 1961, MURAI, 1970, RAUSCH, 1976, TENORA and MURAI, 1980, GENOV, 1984, TENORA, HAU KI S ALM I and HENTTONEN, 1985 and others). To elucidate other points at issue, we present below the following facts. The species Taenia omphalodes Hermann, 1783 = P. omphalodes (Hermann, 1783) was described very imperfectly from the host defined by HERMANN, 1783 as follows: "In unserer gewöhnlichen kleinen Feldmaus die aber einen etwas dicker Kopf hat, . . .". Other descriptions of this species appeared as late as in the 19th century. They are again very incomplete and the species may be identified only on the basis of the description and illustration by STIEDA (1862). As to the descriptions by DU JARDIN (1845) and LINSTOW (1878), we can only believe that really T. omphalodes Hermann, 1783 was involved. Many detailed morphological characters of Anoplocephala omphalodes (Hermann, 1783) were described at the beginning of the 20th century by JANICKI (1906). On the other hand, some important metrical (as scolex, diameter, sucker diameter) or numerical (number of testes etc. ) data are lacking and the material of A. omphalodes of JANICKI (1906) is a complex of spp. LÜHE (1910) established the genus Pa ranoplocephala . As it was said earlier, the author did not study any specimens of the type species (P. omphalodes), he incorrectly redrew the segment with uterus and thus caused an erroneous interpretation of uterus character, which was adopted in the literature for almost three-quarter of the century. •
