A revision of the genus Alofia Giglioli, 1922 and a description of a new monotypic genus, Selfia: two genera of pentastomid parasites (Porocephalida: Sebekidae) inhabiting the bronchioles of the marine crocodile Crocodylus porosus and other crocodilians

Abstract

The pentastomid genus Alofia Giglioli, 1922 (Porocephalida: Sebekidae), which is exclusively parasitic in the bronchioles of crocodiles, is reviewed. The type-species of the taxon, A. ginae Giglioli, 1922 from an unknown host allegedly taken in Samoa, had very distinctive, fine hooks with long slender blades bent at right angles. I describe a single female with identical hooks from the Philippines which was almost certainly derived from the marine crocodile Crocodylus porosus. This same host harboured two specimens of another Alofia species, tentatively identified as A. merki Giglioli, 1922, a species originally described with A. ginae (and, in all probability, from the same (unknown) host). Additional male and female specimens of A. merki, from several specimens of Australian C. porosus, re-affirm the characteristics of this species. Another new Alofia species, A. simpsoni, from an unknown host in Ghana, is established from measurements of two slide-mounted specimens (previously labelled Sebekia) from The Natural History Museum. There can be little doubt that its host is also a crocodile.

A new monotypic genus Selfia is described, based on a type-series of 14 female and one male pentastomids dissected from the bronchioles of five specimens of C. porosus, all taken in Australia. Of the genera comprising the family Sebekidae (Alofia, Sebekia, Diesingia and Leiperia) Selfia is closest to the first, and its main diagnostic characteristics include a massive Alofia-like body, but with a markedly tapered, bluntly-rounded tail, and small, smooth ‘linear’ hooks with minute blades. The rear part of the anterior hooks are enveloped by a soft, cowl-like extension to the fulcrum, covered by small spines. The oral cadre is not U-shaped as in Alofia, but is more like that of Sebekia, whereas by contrast the male copulatory spicules of Selfia porosus and Alofia spp. are virtually identical, except in size.

One previously described Alofia sp. from South American crocodilians is well characterized and valid, but two others are considered species inquirendae.