The Asian fish tapeworm, Schyzocotyle acheilognathi (Yamaguti, 1934) (Cestoda: Bothriocephalidea), is an invasive parasite of freshwater fishes that have been reported from more than 200 freshwater fish worldwide. It was originally described from a small cyprinid, Acheilognathus rombeus, in Japan but then has spread, usually with carp, minnows or guppies, to all continents including isolated islands such as Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba or Sri Lanka. In the present account, we report the first case of the infection of a native cichlid fish, Ptychochromis cf. inornatus (Perciformes: Cichlidae), endemic to Madagascar, with S. acheilognathi. The way of introduction of this parasite to the island, which is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, is briefly discussed.

Department of Animal Biology Faculty of Science University of Antananarivo Antananarivo BP 906 Antananarivo 101 Madagascar

Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 611 37 Brno Czech Republic

Institute of Parasitology Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Branišovská 31 370 05 České Budějovice Czech Republic

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