Review of hymenolepidids associated with the tribe Sudarikovinini Spassky, 1991 (Eucestoda, Hymenolepididae), with descriptions of two unrecognized species from the Shaw's jird Meriones (Pallasiomys) shawi (Duvernoy) (Rodentia: Muridae: Gerbillinae) from Northern Africa.

The taxonomic position of the hymenolepidid cestode genera Paraoligorchis Wason et Johnson, 1977 and Sudarikovina Spassky, 1951 from gerbils and ground squirrels from Africa, Southwest Asia and South Asia is clarified based on re-examination of type and voucher materials. The generic diagnosis of Sudarikovina is amended. The main corrections for diagnostic characters at the generic level include: irregularly-spaced transverse anastomoses of ventral osmoregulatory canals; presence of both specimens with dextral genital pores and specimens with sinistral genital pores; vagina clearly covered externally by a dense layer of intensely-stained cells; young uterus reticulate and fully-developed uterus with a labyrinthine structure. The previously proposed generic character of a minimum number of testes per proglottis of species of Sudarikovina is reduced to 3. The genus Paraoligorchis is recognized as a junior synonym of Sudarikovina. For the type species of Paraoligorchis, P. taterae Wason et Johnson, 1977, the replacement name Sudarikovina wasojohni nom. nov. is proposed, thus resolving the secondary homonymy of the transferred species and its senior homonym S. taterae Hunkeler, 1972. The validity of the tribe Sudarikovinini sensu Spassky (1991), to which Paraoligorchis and Sudarikovina had been attributed, cannot be resolved due the lack of molecular data. The cestode specimens from Shaw's jird, Meriones (Pallasiomys) shawi (Duvernoy) from Algeria and Tunisia, initially designated as Hymenolepis sp. by Joyeux (1923) and Hymenolepis procera Janicki, 1904 by Joyeux & Foley (1930), represent undescribed species of Sudarikovina, which are described in this study as Sudarikovina pentatesticulata sp. n. and S. tetratesticulata sp. n., respectively. The main diagnostic characters of the two new species, which distinguish them from their congeners, are the number and the size of the testes.