Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 20. (Budapest, 1987)

scolex, very deep rostellar sheath reaching up to about the 10th proglottis, similar shape and size of the rostellar hooks, long cirrus sac, position of the vagina dorsal to it, etc. On the basis of this similarity, M. leptophallus and M. horvathi have been moved from the genus Dilepis Weinland, 1858 to the genus Megacirrus (SPASSKY, 1965; SPASSKAJA and SPASSKY, 1977). The present study revealed that the species re-examined differs from the type-species of Megacirrus

, as described by BECK in at least two characteristics of generic value: the position of the genital ducts to excretory canals (between in M. mega- podii and dorsally in M. leptophallus and M. horvathi) and the pattern of the uterus development (sac-like in the former species and reticular in the latter two species). This fact suggests that the position of both species redescribed in the genus Megacirrus is not proved. A re-examination of the types of M. megapodii is needed to confirm or to correct the original description and generic diagnosis of Megacirrus, respectively, and to elucidate the generic position of M. leptophallus and M. horvathi. Nevertheless, their placement in Dilepis Weinland, 1858, as it was proposed by KOTLÁN (1923) and accepted by YAMAGUTI (1959), MATHEVOSSIAN (1963) and SCHMIDT (1986), seems also unacceptable, since they differ from the type-species Dilepis undula (Schrank, 1788) in many details: the presence of retractor muscle, structure of the scolex, shape of the rostellar hooks, etc. CONCLUSION Four species of the family Dilepididae are known as parasites of Meg_apodiidae (Galliformes): Kotlanolepis yorkei (Kotlán, 1923) gen. n., comb, n., Megacirrus megapodii Beck, 1951, , Megacirrus leptophallus (Kotlán, 1923) Spassky, 1965 and Megacirrus horvathi (Kotlán, 1923) Spasskaja et Spassky, 1977. Three of them (type specimens of the s. I, Dilepis species erected by KOTLÁN, 1923) were available for the present study. After the re-investigation one of the species, Kotlanolepis yorkei proved to be a representative of a different phyletic line. The other two species, M. leptophallus and M. horvathi, are regarded as members of the genus Megacirrus Beck, 1951, however, the original description of Megacirrus is incomplete and only after redescription of the type species - Megacirrus megapodii Beck, 1951 will it be possible to definitely settle the systematic position of these two species. In this paper we have clarified the generic characters of Kotlanolepis gen.n. and provided reliable data as regards the specific identity of K. yorkei (Kotlán, 1923) comb.n., M. lepto phallus (Kotlán, 1923) and M. horvathi (Kotlán, 1923) (based on the shape of the hooks

, relation of handle to blade by rostellar hooks, number of testes, position and morphology of genital ducts, morphology of uterus and the eggs etc.) Contrary to MATHEVOSSIAN (1963), M. horvathi is considered a valid species. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of Prof. Tibor KOBULEJ, successor to the Chair of Parasitology in the University of Veterinary Science, Budapest after Prof. KOTLÁN, and to Miklós JANISCH, curator of the parasitological collection. It is due to them utmost care that this valuable material, that has been relocated several times during reconstructions and moving the department, has been preserved, and with the consent of Prof. Tibor KASSAI, the current head of the department has been donated to the parasite collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. We wish to thank Prof. Béla LOVAS for his kind assistance with the photographs. This project has been completed with the financial support for one of the authors (B.G. ) of the Committee for Science of the Council of Ministers of Bulgaria under contract No. 471. We wish to thank Prof. Tódor GENOV in the Central Helminthological Laboratory of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences for providing facilities for study in his laboratory, and for the helpful discussions. We are pleased to express our thanks to Dr. Z. BOEV in Sofia for his help in the nomenclature of the host species.