Parasites of South African freshwater fish. V. Description of two new species of the genus Spinitectus Fourment, 1883 (Nematoda: Cystidicolidae).

Spinitectus petterae n. sp. was recovered from catfish, Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) and Spinitectus zambezensis n. sp. from squeakers, Synodontis zambezensis Peters, 1852 in the Kruger National Park. The nematodes are easily differentiated from each other in that Spinitectus petterae has an additional pair of papillae on the pseudolabia, the males have considerably longer spicules and a different configuration of the tips of the left spicule, and the vulva of the females is considerably closer to the anus than is the case with Spinitectus zambezensis. The new species differ from Spinitectus allaeri Campana-Rouget, 1961, Spinitectus mormyri Campana-Rouget, 1961 and Spinitectus thurstonae Ogden, 1967 in having more spines per row in the 1st 2 rows. Despite possible conspecificity with Spinitectus polli Campana-Rouget, 1961, Spinitectus zambezensis should be regarded as a valid species because of the morphological, geographical and host differences.