Species of the Genus Paroniella Fuhrmann, 1920 (Cestoda: Davaineidae) from Bulbuls (Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae): Redescription of P. perreti (Mahon, 1954) and Description of P. neolestes n. sp. from Africa.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to contribute to the knowledge on the diversity of cestodes of the genus Paroniella Fuhrmann, 1920 parasitising passerine birds of the family Pycnonotidae (bulbuls) in the Afrotropical Region. The only known species of this groups, Paroniella perreti (Mahon, 1954) from Pycnonotus tricolor (Hartlaub) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is poorly described. Therefore, it needed a detailed redescription in order to make a reliable comparison and provide differentiation among this species and newly-collected davaineid specimens. Based on new materials collected from Neolestes torquatus Cabanis in Gabon, Paroniella neolestes n. sp. is described.

Methods: The type series of P. perreti from the collection of the Natural History Museum of Geneva is redescribed and figured using conventional light microscopy and interference-contrast microscopy. The specimens of the new species were stained by iron acetocarmine and mounted in Canada balsam.

Results: The present study provided more detailed and accurate data on P. perreti (compared to its original description) in relation mostly to the armament of suckers (not mentioned in the original description), the structure of the copulative apparatus, the number of rostellar hooks and the number of testes. The morphological comparison of the specimens from Neolestes torquatus from Gabon with the known 53 species of the genus Paroniella (presented in a table format) characterised them as belonging to a new species. The new combination Paroniella oitaensis (Kugi, 1990) n. comb. was proposed.

Conclusions: Based on the present state of knowledge, P. perreti and P. neolestes seem to be specific each to a single host species, i.e. Pycnonotus tricolor and Neolestes torquatus, respectively. Further studies of davaineid cestodes from pycnonotids from Africa as well as from South and Southeast Asia may result in discovering much greater diversity of this group than currently known.