The tanaka's snailfish Liparis tanakae (Gilbert & Burke) (Scorpaeniformes: Liparidae) is an economically important marine fish species in China. However, the helminth parasites of this fish are still poorly known. During a helminthological survey of Chinese marine fishes from 2011 to 2012, we revealed that L. tanakae was heavily infected with third-stage larvae and adults of ascaridoid nematodes (total prevalence 100% and mean intensity 82.3 nematodes per fish). Four species of third-stage larvae Hysterothylacium liparis Li, Xu & Zhang, 2007, H. aduncum (Rudolphi, 1802), Hysterothylacium fabri (Rudolphi, 1819), and Anisakis pegreffii (Campana-Rouget & Biocca, 1955) and a single species of adults H. liparis were differentiated and identified by morphological and molecular methods. The detailed morphology of the four species of third-stage larvae was also studied using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The morphological and molecular characterization of the third-stage larvae of H. liparis was reported. Liparis tanakae represents a new host record for A. pegreffii and H. fabri. In addition, a new name, Hysterothylacium zhoushanense nom. nov. was also given to Hysterothylacium zhoushanensis Li, Liu & Zhang, 2012 to make the latinized specific epithet agree with this neuter generic name.

In the present study, we have extended earlier taxonomic, biochemical and experimental investigations to characterize two species of Taenia from carnivores in Kenya by use of the sequences of a variable domain (D1) of nuclear ribosomal DNA and the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 and NADH dehydrogenase 1 genes of mitochondrial DNA. Emphasis was placed on the characterization of Taenia madoquae from the silver-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) and Taenia regis from the lion (Panthera leo), given the previous absence of any DNA sequence data for them, and on assessing their genetic relationships with socioeconomically important taeniids. The study showed that T. regis was genetically most closely related to T. hydatigena, and T. madoquae to T. serialis, T. multiceps or T. saginata. The present findings provide a stimulus for future work on the openUP (December 2007) systematic relationships and epidemiology of lesser-known taeniid cestodes in Africa and other continents, employing mitochondrial sequence data sets.

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