Superfamily Haplosplanchnoidea Poche, 1926

Abstract

Haplosplanchnidae Poche, 1925 is a small family of digeneans with representatives in the gastro-intestinal tract of marine, estuarine and freshwater fishes, mullets being the preferred hosts. The haplosplanchnids have been considered as closely related to the Haploporidae Nicoll, 1914 and were included along with this family in the superfamily Haploporoidea Nicoll, 1914. However, phylogenetic analysis of the digeneans employing molecular tools revealed no relationship whatsoever between haploporids and haplosplanchnids. In accordance with this, Olson et al. (2003) referred it to the Haplosplanchnoidea Poche, 1926 and to a new suborder Haplosplanchnata Olson, Cribb, Tkach, Bray & Littlewood, 2003. Reviews on the family were provided by Skrjabin & Guschanskaja (1955), Nahhas et al. (1997) and Madhavi (2005).