Subfamily Anoplocephalinae Cholodkovsky, 1902

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Introduction

The sub-family Anoplocephalinae is characterised by the presence of a persistent, usually transverse uterus, an egg containing an elongate envelope surrounding the embryo, termed a pyriform apparatus, and the intermediate hosts in all known life cycles are oribatid mites. Anoplocephaline cestodes occur primarily in herbivorous mammals that ingest the infected mites accidentally while grazing. The sub-family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring commonly in equids, ruminants, rodents, lagomorphs and phalangeroid marsupials as well as in birds (often parrots), dermopterans and primates, including man (Beveridge 1994).

The subfamily is well represented in the Australian cestode fauna with 11 genera. The largest genera, Bertiella Stiles & Hassall, 1902 and Progamotaenia Nybelin, 1917, occur in phalangeroid and phascolarctoid marsupials (possums, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, koalas) as do also three smaller genera, Phascolocestus Beveridge, 2013 (formerly included in Paramoniezia Maplestone & Southwell, 1923), Phascolotaenia Beveridge, 1976 and Triplotaenia Boas, 1902. Two other genera, Paronia Diamare, 1900 and Hemiparonia Baer, 1925, are found in parrots. Killigrewia Meggitt, 1927, found in pigeons, is probably introduced.

The remaining genera that occur in mammals are in domestic species and are considered to be recent introductions. Moniezia Blanchard, 1891 in ruminants and Anoplocephala Blanchard, 1848 in horses are common and significant veterinary parasites (Mackerras 1958), while Equinia Haukisalmi, 2009 (formerly included in Anoplocephaloides Baer, 1923), from horses, appears to be rare in Australia (Mackerras 1958).

General References

Beveridge, I. 1994. Family Anoplocephalidae Cholodkovsky, 1902. pp. 315-366 in Khalil, L.F., Jones, A. & Bray, R.A. (eds). Keys to the Cestode Parasites of Vertebrates. Wallingford, UK : Commonwealth Agriculture Bureaux International 751 pp.

Mackerras, M.J. 1958. Catalogue of Australian mammals and their recorded internal parasites. Part I. Monotremes and marsupials. Part II. Eutheria. Part III. Introduced herbivora and the domestic pig. Part IV. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 83: 101-160

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