Uvitellina simile Stossich 1902, n. comb.

U. simile (Stossich, 1902) n. comb.

Syn. U. magniembria Witenberg, 1923

Type host. “ Himantopus atropterus ” as spelled by Yamaguti (1971) (As far as we can determine this is not a valid species. There are two species of Himantopus world wide: the black-winged or common stilt, Himantopus himantopus [Linnaeus], and the black-necked stilt, H. mexicanus [Müller] [Charadriiformes: Recurvirostridae], and only H. himantopus would likely be present in Egypt or the Russian Federation).

Type locality. Cairo, Egypt.

Additional hosts. Northern lapwing, Vanellus vanellus (Linnaeus) (Charadriiformes: Charadriidae)— Witenberg (1923); “Stilt”, Himantopus candidus (Bonnaterre) (Not a valid bird species – see above)— Chertkova et al. (1994).

Additional localities. Alexandria, Egypt; Russian Federation; Turkestan; Volga Delta—Witenberg (1923); USSR (CIS)— Chertkova et al. (1994).

Previously proposed synonyms. Cyclocoelum similis (Stossich, 1902) — Joyeux & Baer (1927); Haematotrephus consimilis Nicoll, 1914 — Bashkirova (1950).

Remarks. The original description of this species as Haematotrephus similis Stossich, 1902 by Stossich (1902) was minimal providing only a length and width measurement (8,000 by 2,000). Kossack (1911) provided some additional information on this species based on specimens in the Berlin Museum (No. 2309) that were labeled as “ Monostomum mutabile Zeder ” that he felt represented this species. Uvitellina simile n. comb. was considered to be a synonym of Haematotrephus lanceolatum (Wedl, 1858) by Dubois (1959) and Macko & Feige (1960) and of Cyclocoelum (H.) vanelli (Rudolphi, 1819) (= Uvitellina vanelli [Rudolphi, 1819]) by Dubois (1965). This species has a pretesticular ovary that forms a triangle with the testes (Haematotrephinae), a postpharyngeal genital pore and the vitelline fields are confluent posteriorly, placing it in Uvitellina. Uvitellina magniembria is virtually identical to this species and is synonymized with it herein. In addition to the measurements, U. magniembria is like U. simile n. comb. in having the uterine loops overreaching the ceca laterally, the posterior-most uterine loops extending posterior to the anterior margin of the anterior testis where they typically extend into the posttesticular space, and by parasitizing the same species of charadriiform bird from the same general flyway. No oral or ventral sucker described—Stossich (1902) and Kossack (1911).