(Cestoda: Diphyllobothriidae) Collected in A Heavily Infected Stray Cat from the Republic of Korea.

Morphological and molecular characteristics of spirometrid tapeworms, , were studied, which were recovered from a heavily infected stray cat road-killed in Eumseong-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do (Province), the Republic of Korea (=Korea). A total of 134 scolices and many broken immature and mature proglottids of tapeworms were collected from the small intestine of the cat. Morphological observations were based on 116 specimens. The scolex was 22.8-32.6 mm (27.4 mm in average) in length and small spoon-shape with 2 distinct bothria. The uterus was coiled 3-4 times, the end of the uterus was ball-shaped, and the vaginal aperture shaped as a crescent moon was closer to the cirrus aperture than to the uterine aperture. PCR amplification and direct sequencing of the target fragment (377 bp in length and corresponding to positions 769-1,146 bp of the gene) were performed using total genomic DNA extracted from 134 specimens. The sequences (377 bp) of the specimens showed 99.0% similarity to the reference sequence of and 89.3% similarity to the reference sequence of . In the present study, we report a stray cat heavily infected with identified by mitochondrial sequence analysis and morphological examinations of the adult worms.