Family DIOICOCESTIDAE Southwell, 1930

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Introduction

Southwell (1930) proposed the family Dioicocestidae (erroneously spelled Dioecocestidae) for the single genus Dioicocestus Fuhrmann, 1900 (erroneously spelled Dioecocestus) on the basis of the separation of sexes (i.e., some individuals have proglottids with only male genital organs, and others have proglottids with only female organs) (Mariaux et al. 2017).
The Dioicococestidae are a small family of dioicious cyclophyllidean cestodes in which the vaginal opening is typically absent. They are characteristically parasites of charadriiform and podicepediform birds (Jones 1994). Two subfamilies are currently recognised, the Dioecocestinae Southwell, 1930 in which male genitalia are paired and the uterus is a transverse tube, and the Gyrocoeliinae Yamaguti, 1959 in which the male genitalia are single and the uterus is ring- or horseshoe-shaped (Jones 1994).

Both subfamilies are cosmopolitan and both are represented in Australian birds.

General References

Jones, A. 1994. Family Dioecocestidae Southwell, 1930. pp. 391-398 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.

Mariaux, J., Tkach, V.V., Vasileva, G.P., Waeschenbach, A., Beveridge, I., Dimitrova, Y.D., Haukisalmi, V., Greinman, S.E., Littlewood, D.T.J., MAkarikov, A.A., Philips, A.J., Razafiarisolo, T., Widmer, V. & Georgiev, B.B. 2017. Cyclophyllidea van Beneden in Braun, 1900. pp. 77-148 in Caira, J.N. & Jensen, K. (eds.). Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (2008–2017): Tapeworms from Vertebrate Bowels of the Earth. Lawrence, KS, USA : University of Kansas, Natural History Museum Vol. Special Publication No. 25. [108]

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