Proyseria decora (Dujardin, 1845) (the type-species of the genus Proyseria Petter, 1959) is redescribed on the basis of specimens from Alcedo atthis (L.) (Coraciiformes: Alcedinidae) from Iran. P. petterae n. sp. is described from Corythornis vintsioides (Eydoux & Gervais) (Alcedinidae) from Madagascar by light and scanning electron microscopy. Proyseria sp. from Alcedo euryzona Temminck from continental Malaysia is described on the basis of a single male specimen. Stegophorus alcedonis Puqin, Yanyin & Guocal, 1991 from A. atthis in China is transferred to the genus Proyseria as P. alcedonis n. comb. The generic diagnosis of Proyseria is amended. Review of the species of the genera Proyseria and Stegophorus Wehr, 1934 is presented.
Quazithelazia rostrata n. sp. from Ceyx erithaca (L.) (type-host) and Alcedo euryzona Temminck (Coraciiformes, Alcedinidae) and Q. alata n. sp. from Enicurus ruficapillus Temminck (Passeriformes, Muscicapidae) are described from vicinities of Gombak Biological Station, Selangor, Malaysia; both species are parasitic under the koilin lining of the gizzard. Paratypes of Schistogendra pelargopsis Nandi, De & Majumdar, 1985, a parasite of Pelargopsis capensis (L.) (Alcedinidae) from India, are redescribed and the species is recognised as a junior synonym of the type-species of Quasithelazia, Q. tenuis Maplestone, 1932 (new synonymy), a species originally described from Halcyon smyrnensis (L.) (Alcedinidae) in India. An amended diagnosis of the genus Quasithelazia Maplestone, 1932 is proposed. Currently, this genus includes eight species occurring in the Old World, six of them parasitic in kingfishers (Alcedinidae) and two species parasitic in flycatchers (Muscicapidae). These include, inter alia, Q. halcyoni n. comb. for Viktorocara halcyoni Ryzhikov & Khokhlova, 1964 from Halcyon smyrnensis and H. pileata (Boddaert) in Vietnam and the Russian Far East, Q. microcordonis n. comb. for Rusguniella microcordonis Schmidt & Kuntz, 1971 from Halcyon coromanda major (Temminck & Schlegel) in Taiwan and Q. multipapillata n. comb. for Schistogendra multipapillata Zhang, 1993 from Tarsiger cyanurus (Pallas) (Muscicapidae) in China. Comparative morphological data for Quasithelazia spp. are presented. Schistogendra oligopapillata Zhang & An, 2002 from domestic ducks in China is considered a species incertae sedis.
The synlophe of Batrachonema synaptospicula Yuen, 1965 collected from Rana limnocharis Boie, 1835 of peninsular Malaysia was found to be identical morphologically to that in the specimens from Rana narina Stejneger, 1901 of Okinawa, and R. limnocharis of Taiwan. In the midbody, 20-22 ridges are present, and the ridges increase gradually in size and are oriented from right to left in the dorsal and left ventral fields, whereas the right ventral ridges are small and almost perpendicular to the body wall. The orientation of ridges from right to left is considered to be a key characteristic of the genus Batrachonema. Because Amphibiophilus ranae Wang et al., 1978 and Amphibiophilus sp. from R. limnocharis of south China are regarded to be conspecific with B. synaptospicula, this nematode is surmised to be distributed widely in southeast and east Asia.
We redescribe the camallanid nematode Serpinema octorugatum (Baylis, 1933) from the box turtle Cuora amboinensis (Daudin) collected in Malaysia. In this redescription, we amend the original description by noting that there are only four cephalic papillae and that there are five pairs of post-anal papillae, and propose that the name of this species be corrected from S. octorugatus to S. octorugatum. Additionally, we removed the tissues overlying the buccal capsule and have used SEM studies to show that the peribuccal shields extend laterally from the buccal capsule, forming a surface possibly used in muscle attachment. Furthermore, we show that the supposedly non-cuticularised cylinder connecting the buccal capsule to the oesophagus in the Camallanidae is part of the buccal capsule and is, therefore, likely to be cuticularised. We also examine morphological measurements of taxonomic interest for correlations with total body length and find that many characters traditionally used for inter- and intra-specific comparisons are correlated with total body length in adult female worms. This suggests that comparisons between samples of adult female worms that do not account for the potential effect of total body length may be misleading. However, we show that some features of taxonomic interest are not correlated with total body length.