Cestode: Lytocescestus mastacembellusi

The genus Lytocestus was erected by Cohn, 1908 with its type species L. adhaerens, found in Clarias fuscus in Hong Kong. This genus was first confirmed by Woodland (1926), who included four more species in the addition to the type species. They are L filiformis woodland (1923), in Mormyrus caschive, Egyptian Sudan, L chalmersius woodland (1924), L cunningtoni Fuhrman and Baer (1925), and L Indicus Moghe (1925) (syn. Caryophyllaceous Indicus ) from Clarias batrachus in India. The same were recorded by Mehra (1930) from Clarias magur and Ramadevi (1973) from Clarias batrachus in India. Hunter (1927) placed the genus in subfamily of his own namely, Lytocestinae and retained only three species i.e. L adhaerens, L filiformis and L Indicus. He put the species L cunningtoni and chalmersius in the genus Monobothriodides. Subsequent workers Gupta (1969), Murhar (1963), have adhered to these changes. Wardle and McLeod (1952) followed Hunters classification but raised the status of Lytocestinae from Subfamily to a family. Wardle, McLeod and Radinovsky (1974) suggested new classification of Cestode, who used the term Cotyloda as a class. Mickiewicz (1972) included the species L javanicus Bovien (1926), Furtado (1963), Lynsdale (1956) and L parvulus Furtado (1963), in this genus. Johyi (1959) Considered L. alestesi as synonym of L birmanicus Lynsdale (1956), but Mickiewicz (1972) after examination of Original material L. alestesi Lynsdale (1956) conclude that, It should be considered a synonym of L. filiformis woodland (1923). Ramadevi (1973) described L. longicollis from Clarias batrachus in India. All the eight species come from East Asian countries. The present communication, deals with the description of a new species under the same genus, as Lytocestus mastacembellusi n. sp. collected from Mastacembellusi armatus, at Paitan, Dist. Aurangabad, M. S. India.