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

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].Published as part of Domingues, Marcus V. & Boeger, Walter A., 2008, Phylogeny and revision of Diplectanidae Monticelli, 1903 (Platyhelminthes: Monogenoidea), pp. 1-40 in Zootaxa 1698 on page 30, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18075