Parasitological examinations of 102 specimens of the lesser great cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis (Blumenbach) from two nesting regions in the Czech Republic (South Bohemia and South Moravia) were carried out at the Institute of Parasitology, Czech Academy of Sciences (previously the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences) in the years 1987-1992. In them, a total of 19 species of helminth parasites was found, including Trematoda (11 species), Cestoda (2), Nematoda (4) and Acanthocephala (2), which can be divided into three main groups regarding their host specificity: parasites specific for cormorants (Phalacrocorax spp.) (37%), those parasitic mainly in cormorants (16%) and non-specific parasites (47%). Of the 19 species recorded, 100% were found in South Moravia, but only 47% of these 19 species in South Bohemia. The higher number of helminth species in cormorants from South Moravia and a higher proportion of non-specific species may be associated with the presence of the large Nové Mlýny water reservoir, in addition to better ecological and environmental conditions in this warmer region. Scanning electron microscopical examination of three common nematode species parasitising cormorants, Contracaecum rudolphii Hartwich, 1964, Desmidocercella incognita Solonitsin, 1932 and Syncuaria squamata (von Linstow, 1883), revealed some taxonomically important, previously unreported morphological features, such as the cephalic structures, numbers and distribution of male caudal papillae or the shapes of spicules., František Moravec, Tomáš Scholz., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Holotype and paratype of Ascocotyle (Phagicola) rara Arruda, Muniz-Pereira et Pinto, 2002, a heterophyid trematode recently described on the basis of two worms collected by Lauro Travassos in 1921 in the intestine of Ixobrychus exilis (Gmelin) from Brazil, were studied. The morphology of the worms revealed their conspecificity with Ascocotyle (Phagicola) angeloi Travassos, 1928 found in the same host. Both the taxa have a similar length (between 600 and 900 µm) and shape of the body (long pyriform), the long intestinal caeca reaching to the ovarian level, a long posterior muscular prolongation of the oral sucker and the prepharynx, transverse uterine loops situated between the ventral sucker and testes, and the gonotyl with more than 20 digitiform pockets. Consequently, A. (P.) rara is proposed as a junior synonym of Ascocotyle (Phagicola) angeloi.