A new cestode, Wardium gvozdevi sp. n. (Cestoda: Hymenolepididae), and its biology.

A new species, Wardium gvozdevi sp. n., was described from a slender-billed gull (Larus genei Brême) in central Kazakhstan (Lake Tengiz). It was experimentally established that brine shrimps Artemia salina, abundant in the lake, are obligatory intermediate host of the cestodes. Wardium gvozdevi develops in the intermediate host (from an oncosfere to a cysticercoid) during 12-15 days under conditions of Lake Tengiz with the extremely salt water (65-80 per mill) and temperatures of 22-24 degrees C.