The genera Paranoplocephala Lühe 1910 and Anoplocephaloides Baer, 1923 (Cestoda: Anoplocephalidae), with particular reference to species in rodents.

The present study redefines the systematic arrangement and taxonomic status of some anoplocephaline cestodes previously allocated among the genera Andrya Railliet, 1893. Paranoplacephala Lühe, 1910, and Aprostatandrya Kirshenblat, 1938. Comparisons indicated that Paranoplocephala omphalodes (Hermann, 1783), type species of Paranoplocephala, differs morphologically from its congeners, all of which conform to the diagnosis of the genus Anoplocephaloides Baer, 1923, hitherto considered a synonym of Paranoplocephala, and that it cannot be distinguished at the generic level from Aprostatandrya macrocephala (Douthitt, 1915), type of the genus Aprostatandrya. The distinction between Andrya and Aprostatandrya based on the presence or absence of a "prostate gland" does not exist, for neither the type species of Andrya, A; rhopalocephala (Riehm, 1881), nor A. cuniculi (Blanchard, 1891) possesses such an organ; rather, the structure of the external seminal vesicle in these cestodes does not differ fundamentally from that in P. omphalodes or in species of Aprostatandrya. Based on these findings, Aprostatandrya Kirshenbalt, 1938 is placed in synonymy with Paranoplocephala Lühe, 1910, and Anoplocephaloides Baer, 1923 is restored to contain all species other than P. omphalodes formerly allocated to the genus. Paranoplocephala. If the pattern of development of the uterus in A. rhopalocephala is found to be like that in P. omphalodes, Paranoplocephala Lühe, 1910 will in turn also become a synonym of Andrya Railliet, 1893. Three additional species of Anoplocephaloides are described, and the zoogeography of Anoplocephaloides spp. and their mammalian hosts is briefly discussed.