L. Forró szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 12. 1998 (Budapest, 1998)

Tenora, F., Gubányi, A.; Eszterbauer, E.: Morphological investigation of Mesocestoides (Cestoda, Mesocestoididae) species parasitizing Vulpes vulpes in Hungary

M. lineatus, which is common in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), but it has not been widely accepted. Priemer (1983) identified two species of Mesocestoides, M. lineatus and M. litteratus from red foxes in Germany (formerly G.D.R.) and discussed the nomenclature problems of the genus Mesocestoides in Central Europe. Loos-Frank (1990) also observed two different groups of Mesocestoides from Vulpes vulpes in Israel, one of them was identified as M. leptothylacus (- M. lineatus). At the same time, a parasite of arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) has been recovered by Loos-Frank et al. (1992) and redescribed as Mesocestoides canislagopodis (Rudolphi, 1810) (Krabbe, 1865). Mesocestoides canislagopodis (Rudolphi, 1810) (Krabbe, 1865) sensu Loos-Frank et al. 1992 seems to be a good Mesocestoides species, but the tetrathyridia of it have not yet been found. Chertkova & Kosupko (1975, 1978) discriminated 12 species of Mesocestoides, such as M. petrowi, M. lineatus, M. mesorchis, M.beringi, M. zacharovae, M. erschovi, M. litteratus, M. kirbyi, M. caestus, M. didelphus, M. charadrii, M. perlatus. On the other hand, Schmidt (1986) listed 26 Mesocestoides species parasitizing birds and mammals. Anyway, only a few species of the genus Mesocestoides can be reliably distinguished (Rausch 1994). Voge (1955) and Chertkova et al. (1975) published for the first time the form of the cirrus and mode of its rolling-up, the form of the cirrus pouch and the number and distribution of testes as important differentiating morphological characters for the identification of Mesocestoides species, that were applied later by others, too. The aim of our study was to examine morphological characteristics of Mesocestoides species parasitizing red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Hungary and give an identification key for distinguishing of different species from each other. Materials and methods This study is based on specimens recovered from red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), hunted in different parts of Hungary (Zemplén Mountain, Budapest, Budakeszi, Telki, Újszász, Makó, Hollád, Babát, Perbál) between the years 1973 and 1993. The cestodes were fixed in hot formaline and stored in 5 % formaline. The specimens were stained by ironcarmine after Georgiev et al. (1986) or haematoxiline and mounted in Canada balsam. The whole-mount slides (HNHM15256/1 -8, HNHM-13129/1-12, HNHM-6837/2, HNHM-4635/1-4, HNHM-5014/1-11, HNHM-7819/1, 7846/1-2, HNHM-6226/1,

4,5,7,8, HNHM-78

17/1-3,6,7-10, HNHM-53

12/1,3-8, HNHM-7839/1-4, HNHM-6981/5) are deposited in the Parasitological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum. Cestodes were photographed using a special image acquisition system developed in Parasitological Collection. An Olympus BH-2 microscope was connected with an IBM compatible PC. A grey scale Panasonic video camera (420 lines) and a high-resolution video digitising card (760 lines) were used with the modified version (Gubányi unpublished) of IMAGOES software (Demeter et al. 1996). Distance measurements calculated from pseudo landmark points by the means of the Euclidean Distances Function were as follows: length of cirrus pouch (CD 1-2), width of cirrus pouch (CD3-4), anterior width of immature segment (AD 1-2), posterior width of immature segment (AD3-4), length of immature segment (AD5-6), anterior width of mature segment (BD 1-2), posterior width of mature segment (BD3-4), length of mature segment (BD5-6), length of left masses of vitelline gland (VD1-2), width of left masses of vitelline gland (VD3-4), length of right masses of vitelline gland (VD5-6),width of right masses of vitelline gland (VD7-8), anterior width of segment containing uterus (UD1-2), posterior width of segment containing uterus (UD3-4), length of segment on left side containing uterus (UD1-3), length of segment on right side containing uterus (UD2-4), diameter of testes (TD 1-2), length of ovary (OD1-2), width of ovary (OD3-4), anterior width of gravid segment (DD 1-2), posterior width of gravid segment (DD3-4). length of gravid segment on left side (DD 1-3), length of gravid segment on right side (DD2-4), maximum diameter of onchosphere (DO 1-2), length of paruterine organ (PD1-2), width of paruterine organ (PD3-4).