Acanthocephalus amini n. sp. (Acanthocephala: Echinorhynchidae) from the freshwater fish Cichlasoma urophthalmus (Gu ¨ nther) (Cichlidae) in Mexico Guillermo Salgado-Maldonado Æ Marı ´a Teresa Novelo-Turcotte Received: 8 December 2008 / Accepted: 29 January 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract Acanthocephalus amini n. sp. (Palaeac- anthocephala: Echinorhynchidae) is described from the intestine of Cichlasoma urophthalmus (Gu ¨nther) (Pisces: Cichlidae) collected in the Rı ´o Champoto ´n, a river in Campeche State, Mexico. It is the fourth species of Acanthocephalus Koelreuther, 1771 described from North American freshwater fishes, although two other species are known from South America. The new species is distinguished from other members of Acanthocephalus by features of its trunk, which is small, clavate, slightly expanded medially and bluntly pointed posteriorly. It is further distin- guished by having a cylindrical proboscis armed with 13–14 longitudinal rows of 11–12 stout hooks; the apical and medial proboscis hooks are almost uniform in size and shape, decreasing in size towards the base; the posteriormost hooks are smaller, straighter and more slender than the anterior and middle hooks; and the lateral rows of hooks are more widely spaced, forming a conspicuous longitudinal area devoid of hooks. Furthermore, the lemnisci are saccate and shorter than the proboscis receptacle; and the neck is very short with a thick collar of trunk tegument, which encircles the base of proboscis. In males, the testes are in the middle third of trunk, diagonal, spherical and small relative to the body size, and there are six clavate cement glands. In females, the uterus forms a conspicuous, elongate, cylindrical egg reservoir. The new species is most similar to A. ala- bamensis Amin & Williams, 1983, but can be distinguished by its swollen, clavate trunk, the largest proboscis hooks being present apically and medially, smaller testes, a shorter male reproductive system relative to body size and females with a prominent uterus. They have different hosts and geographical distribution. The new species can be differentiated from Brasacanthus sphoeroides Thatcher, 2001,a similar species in a monotypic echinorhynchid genus, because the latter is larger, has smaller proboscis hooks and its lemnisci are longer than the receptacle. Introduction Of the groups of helminth parasites of freshwater fishes in Mexico, the acanthocephalans are the rarest. Although acanthocephalans are generally abundant in freshwater fish (Amin, 1998), only three species of acanthocephalans have been recorded in fish from Mexico (Salgado-Maldonado et al., 1992; Salgado- Maldonado, 2006, 2008). Thus, the discovery of a fourth species in Mexico is important. In July 1988, six specimens of an undescribed acanthocephalan were G. Salgado-Maldonado (&) Á M. T. Novelo-Turcotte Instituto de Biologı ´a, Universidad Nacional Auto ´noma de Me ´xico, Apartado Postal 70-153, CP 04510 Mexico, DF, Mexico e-mail: gsalgado@ibunam2.ibiologia.unam.mx 123 Syst Parasitol (2009) 73:193–198 DOI 10.1007/s11230-009-9189-3