Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 19. (Budapest, 1986)
RAILLIET (1893) formed the genus Andrya for the species A. rhopalocephala and A. cuniculi. Later, a number of species of the genus Andrya were described from hosts from the nearctic region. Only sporadically are descriptions of tapeworms of this genus known from the palaearctic, ethiopian and/or neotropical regions. In contradistinction to the species formerly classified as the genus Andrya, whose hosts were mammals of the order Lagomorpha, the tapeworms of the genus Andrya described since 1915 are parasites of mammals of the order Rodentia (see DOUTHITT, 1915; JOYEUX, 1923; JOYEUX and BAER, 1936; KIRSCHENBLAT, 1938, 1941; VOGE, 1946, RAUSCH, 1947, 1948, 1952; HANSEN, 1947; SCHAD, 1953; HUNKELER, 1972; TENORA, HAUKISALMI and HENTTONEN, 1985). It should be mentioned that since 1915, when the first new species of the genus Andrya was described, in all cases a pedunculated prostatic gland was found (in later descriptions given as the prostatic gland) which has, since the time of RAILLIET (1893), been considered to be the most important morphological feature characterizing the genus Andrya. KIRSCHENBLAT (1938) proposed that the species of the genus Andrya in which no prostatic gland was found, be grouped into the subgenus Aprostatandrya. SPASSKY (1951) gave the tapeworms of the subgenus Aprostatandrya a generic rank and he divided this genus into two subgenera, i.e. Aprostatandrya a. str. and Sudarikovina subg.n. In the family Anoplocephalidae, SPASSKY (1951) formed the subfamily Monieziinae characterized by a net-like uterus. Into this subfamily he grouped, among others, also the genera Andrya and Aprostatandrya . liUNKELER (1974) promoted the subgenus Sudarikovina to a genus. TENORA (1976) impugned the prostatic gland as a criterion characterizing a taxon of a generic value. In the same study (TENORA, 1976, p. 14) he questioned the existence of the prostatic gland as such. RAUSCH (1976) proved that tapeworms of the genus Andrya have no prostatic gland (i.e. a feature which had so far been used to distinguish tapeworms of the genus Andrya from the other genera of the subfamily Monieziinae). It is a character which must be correctly indicated as the vesicula seminalis externa (cf. in RAUSCH, 1976). He came to the conclusion that the genus Aprostatandrya is a synonym of the genus Paranoplocephala. TENORA, MURAI and VAUCHER (1984, 1985) fully endorsed the opinion of RAUSCH (1976) that the genus Aprostatandrya is a synonym of the genus Paranoplocephala. In his studies of the tapeworm Diandrya composita Darrah, 1930, RAUSCH (1980) indirectly also explained the structure of the development of the uterus in tapeworms of the genus And rya. It is necessary to fully endorse his opinion that the genus Diandrya appears to have derived from Andrya from which it differs only in the doubling of the reproductive organs. If we compare Fig. 1 as given in his study (RAUSCH, 1980, structure of the uterus and other organs in mature segments of the genus Diandrya ) with the structure of the mature segments in species of the genus Andrya ( A. rhopalocephala , A. cuniculi), we will find no difference. However, if we compare the structure of the uterus in mature segments of the species of the genus Andrya (and/or Diandrya ) with the structure of the uterus in mature segments of P. omphalodes (and other species of the genus Paranoplocephala) , then the difference is distinct (see Figs 1,2, and 3). All the above-mentioned circumstances force us to give new characteristics for the genus Andrya.
