Aploparaksis demshini n. sp. (Cestoda: Hymenolepididae), a parasite of the woodcock Scolopax rusticola Linnaeus, and its life-cycle.

Aploparaksis demshini n. sp. is described from a woodcock Scolopax rusticola L. from different parts of the Palaearctic (Lithuania, Karelia, the Urals, Primorskiy Kray). It differs from the most similar species A. belopolskajae Bondarenko, 1988, a parasite of snipes Gallinago spp., in the form and length of the rostellar hooks and the smaller cirrus, and from two other similar species, A. clavata Spasskaya, 1966 and A. schilleri Webster, 1955, by having an embryophore with polar thickenings and a spindle-shaped cirrus. The life-cycle of the parasite was studied under experimental conditions. The metacestodes were commonly located under the chlorogogenous tissue of the intestine of the earthworms Eisenia foetida(Savigny), Dendrobaena octaedra (Savigny) and E. nordenskioldi(Eisen), and in the wall of the intestine of the enchytraeid Briodrilus arcticus(Bell). The metacestodes exhibit a pattern of postembryonal development typical for the cysticercoid modification termed an 'ovoid diplocyst'.