Laticola Yang, Kritsky, Sun, Jiangying, Shi & Agrawal, 2006

Domingues, Marcus V. & Boeger, Walter A., 2008, Phylogeny and revision of Diplectanidae Monticelli, 1903 (Platyhelminthes: Monogenoidea), Zootaxa 1698, pp. 1-40 : 30

Laticola Yang, Kritsky, Sun, Jiangying, Shi & Agrawal, 2006

Diagnosis: Tegument smooth or scaled. Genital pore opening posterior to male copulatory organ (MCO). Genital atrium muscular. Vas deferens apparently intercaecal. MCO tubular, composed of 2 nested tubes; external tube uniform; MCO with distal tube enclosing eversible cirrus [63]; base of the male copulatory organ expanded [62]; muscular ridges associated with the base of the MCO [64]. Accessory piece absent. Prostatic reservoir simple. Accessory copulatory organ absent. Vaginal atrium muscular. Vaginal aperture medial [65]. Squamodiscs, ventral, dorsal; anterior rows of rodlets with open rings. Superficial root of ventral anchor developed. Parasites of marine perciform fishes ( Latidae , Serranidae ).

Type species: Laticola lingaoensis Yang, Kritsky, Sun, Jiangying, Shi & Agrawal, 2006 from Lates calcarifer (Latidae) .

Other species: L. dae Journo & Justine, 2006 from Epinephelus maculatus ; Laticola latesi ( Tripathi, 1957) Yang, Kritsky, Sun, Zhang, Shi & Agrawal, 2006 from Lates calcarifer ; L. paralatesi (Nagibina, 1976) Yang, Kritsky, Sun, Zhang, Shi & Agrawal, 2006 from Lates calcarifer ; L. seabassi ( Wu, Li, Zhu & Xie, 2005) n. comb. from Lates calcarifer .

Remarks: Yang et al. (2006) observed that species of Laticola and Pseudorhabdosynochus possess male copulatory organ with some morphological similarity, suggesting that both genera share a common ancestor. The molecular analyses performed by these authors did not support the sister relationship of Pseudorhabdosynochus and Laticola . Wu et al. (2005) proposed Pseudorhabdosynochus seabassi Wu, Li, Zhu & Xie, 2005 based on the morphology of the male copulatory organ. These authors also proposed a phylogenetic hypothesis for this species and other diplectanids based on molecular data (ssrDNA and lsrDNA), where P. seabassi consistently appears as sister species of Laticola latesi . The presence of muscular ridges associated with the male copulatory organ supports the transfer of Pseudorhabdosynochus seabassi to Laticola Yang, Kritsky, Sun, Jiangying, Shi & Agrawal, 2006 as Laticola seabassi ( Wu, Li, Zhu & Xie, 2005) n. comb.

In our analysis, Laticola consistently emerged as the sister group of Pseudorhabdosynochus and Echinoplectanum , based on the presence of the male copulatory organ with distal tube enclosing eversible male copulatory organ [63]; and the base of the male copulatory organ expanded [62]. Laticola can be differentiated from the latter genera by two autapomorphies: muscular ridges associated with the base of the MCO [64] and medial vaginal aperture [65].