Paradiplozoon opsariichthydis (Jiang, Wu et Wang, 1984) Jiang, Wu et Wang, 1989 (Platyhelminthes, Monogenea, Diplozoidae) is blood-feeding parasite from the gills of Asian cyprinid fish Opsariichthys bidens Günther, 1873. In this study, we present a morphological redescription of P. opsariichthydis neotype main morphological features e.g. size of body and clamps due to the fact that the type material is missing. We decided to supplement morphological descriptions by the relevant molecular data (internal transcribed spacer - ITS2) related to P. opsariichthydis adult worm isolates and other representatives of genus Paradiplozoon to cross verify our findings. In addition to that, this study also brings an attention to the host identification. Thus, parasite data were complemented by the determinant cytochrome oxidase b (cytb) sequences of its hosts. All novel sequences are deposited in GenBank. This combination of the morphological and molecular data related to both the parasite and its host seems to be the optimal approach to the general process of (re)description of highly host-specific parasitic organisms, which can then lead to a meaningful phylogenetic analysis.

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

Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 611 37 Brno Czech Republic; Institute of Parasitology Biology Centre Czech Academy of Sciences Branišovská 31 370 05 České Budějovice Czech Republic

School of Life Science South China Normal University Guangzhou 510631 People's Republic of China

References provided by Crossref.org

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