title: Redescription of Heliconema africanum (Linstow, 1899) n. comb. (Nematoda: Physalopteridae), a nematode parasite of freshwater eels (Anguilla spp.) in South Africa.
abstract: The little-known nematode species Heliconema africanum (Linstow, 1899) n. comb. (Physalopteridae) is redescribed based on light and scanning electron microscopical examinations of specimens collected from the stomach of the African longfin eel Anguilla mossambica (Peters) in the Nahoon River, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. This species, previously misidentified as Heliconema longissimum (Ortlepp, 1922), is a common parasite of eels in South Africa. The systematic status of H. longissimum, a species originally described from unidentified Australian snakes, is unclear and probably several morphologically closely related species have been included under this name.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic. moravec@paru.cas.cz
authors.forename: František
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Moravec
authors.forename: Horst
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Taraschewski
authors.forename: Olaf L F
authors.initials: OL
authors.lastname: Weyl
mesh_terms: D000811:Anguilla / Q000469:parasitology*; D000818:Animals; D008853:Microscopy; D045483:Rivers; D013019:South Africa; D017174:Spirurida / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013270:Stomach / Q000469:parasitology