An undescribed species of KannaphallusUnnithan, 1957 (Monogenoidea: Heteraxinidae) was collected from the gills of the golden trevally Gnathanodon speciosus (Forsskål) (Carangidae) from Moreton Bay, Queensland, during January 2016 and from Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, during December 2021 and June 2022. The diagnosis for Kannaphallus was emended and the new species, Kannaphallus raphidium, was described. Kannaphallus virilis of Young, nec Unnithan was placed in synonymy with K. raphidium. The distal components of the male reproductive system and the arrangement of the clamp rows of the haptor occurred as mirror images among specimens of K. raphidium, suggesting that the respective antipodes of K. raphidium may have reproductive implications and function in the site selection of the parasite on the host's gills. A specimen of K. raphidium from Western Australia was sequenced for the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) mtDNA and ITS2 rDNA barcoding markers, and the phylogenetically informative 28S rDNA marker. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses based on a partial 28S rDNA alignment, including all comparable heteraxinid sequence data available, resolved the Heteraxininae and Cemocotylinae as reciprocatively paraphyletic and provided evidence that Kannaphallus may be paraphyletic. No taxonomic changes concerning the subfamilies and genera of the Heteraxinidae were proposed. Finally, Kannaphallus univaginalisRamalingam, 1960 and Cemocotylelloides univaginalis (Ramalingam, 1960) Nitta, Kondo, Ohtsuka, Kamarudin, and Ismail, 2022 are considered nomen nuda sensu the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
Keywords: Cemocotylelloides carangis; Australia; Cemocotylinae; Mirror images; Monogenea; Moreton Bay; Ningaloo Reef; Phylogeny.
© American Society of Parasitologists 2023.