Comparative-Morphological and Ecological and Biological Analysis of Cestoda Erinaceolepis Erinacei (Gmelin, 1789) Gulyaev Et Irzhavsky COMB.N

Molecular data confirm the taxonomic position of Hymenolepis erinacei (Cyclophyllidea: Hymenolepididae) and host switching, with notes on cestodes of Palaearctic hedgehogs (Erinaceidae)

“…Four cestodes were used for detailed morphological description. There were no significant differences among our specimens of H. erinacei and those recently re-described by Irzhavsky & Ketenchiev (2011) from E. roumanicus from the Caucasus. Specimens of H. erinacei found in Lithuania were characterized by a slightly smaller scolex and proglottids (table 2) but the position and shape of the genital organs were similar to prior morphological descriptions.…”

“…Such abnormalities have been noted in H. diminuta, H. hibernia, Hymenolepis vogeae Singh, 1956, T. mogerae and T. peipingensis (Montgomery et al ., 1987; Sawada & Koyasu, 1991; Mas-Coma & Tenora, 1997; Gulyaev & Melnikova, 2005). The shape of the fully developed uterus was one of the primary features leading to the placement of H. erinacei in the genus Erinaceolepis (Irzhavsky & Ketenchiev, 2011), but later, taking into account other morphological features, it was again relegated to Hymenolepis (Makarikov & Tkach, 2013). The morphology of the scolex and proglottids, however, and the presence of transverse anastomoses between the ventral osmoregulatory canals, and the common attributes of the eggs described herein, confirm the allocation of this species to the genus Hymenolepis.…”

“…The genus Erinaceus contains four species of hedgehogs ( E. europaeus Linnaeus, 1758; E. concolor Martin, 1837; E. roumanicus Barrett-Hamilton, 1900 and E. amurensis Schrenk, 1859), but in the Palaearctic ecozone only one cestode species, H. erinacei, is found parasitizing Erinaceus hedgehogs (Baer, 1932; Spassky, 1954; Prokopič, 1959; Furmaga, 1961; Arzamasov et al ., 1969; Genov, 1984; Bunnell, 2001; Cirak et al ., 2010; Irzhavsky & Ketenchiev, 2011; Pfäffle et al ., 2014). Hymenolepis erinacei has not been reported in E. amurensis , which inhabits south-eastern Eurasia (lowlands of China, north to the Amur Basin and Korea) (Cassola, 2016), as there are no data on the helminth fauna of this mammal.…”

“…Genov (1984) noticed that cestodes from hedgehogs possessed an unarmed rostellum in both adults and cysticercoids, and referred R. erinacei again to Hymenolepis . Irzhavsky & Ketenchiev (2011) excluded H. erinacei from Hymenolepis and erected a new genus Erinaceolepis Gulyaev & Irzhavsky, 2011, based on their observations that the uterus of H. erinacei is not an irregular network, although Czaplinski & Vaucher (1994) recognized it as one of the features of the genus Hymenolepis . In the most recent morphological revision of the genus, the cestode species from hedgehogs was confirmed as a congener within Hymenolepis among a larger assemblage of species (Makarikov & Tkach, 2013).…”