A New Monocotylid Species, Neoheterocotyle quadrispinata n. sp. (Monogenea), Infecting Gills of Rhinobatos hynnicephalus in Japan

Abstract

Neoheterocotyle quadrispinata n. sp. (Monogenea: Monocotylidae) is described from the gills of Rhinobatos hynnicephalus Richardson, 1846 (Rhinopristiformes: Rhinobatidae) in the central Seto Inland Sea, Hiroshima Prefecture and the southern Sea of Japan, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. This is the first report of a Neoheterocotyle species from Japan. The new species is morphologically most similar to N. forficata (Timofeeva, 1981) and N. rhinobatidis (Young, 1967) in having two pairs of dorsal haptoral accessory sclerites but differs from them in that the penis is curved proximally and the accessory piece has a blade-shaped process.