Some species of Centrorhynchus Lu¨he, 1911 (Acanthocephala: Centrorhynchidae) from the collection of the Natural History Museum, London Zlatka M. Dimitrova 1, * & David I. Gibson 2 1 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Agriculture, Thracian University, Student Campus, 6000, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria 2 Parasitic Worms Group, Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK Accepted for publication 7th February, 2005 Abstract Seven species of Centrorhynchus Lu¨he, 1911 are present in the Parasitic Worms Collection of The Natural History Museum, London: C. aluconis (Mu¨ller, 1780) Lu¨he, 1911 from Strix aluco Linnaeus in Great Britain; C. buteonis (Schrank, 1788) Kostylev, 1914 from Accipiter virgatus (Temminck) (new host record) in Sri Lanka (new geographical record); C. clitorideus (Meyer, 1931) Golvan, 1956 from Athene brama (Temminck) (new host record) in India; C. crotophagicola Schmidt & Neiland, 1966 (encysted juveniles in the stomach wall) from Anolis lineatopus Grey (new host record) and A. sagrei Dume´ril & Bibron (new host record) from Jamaica (new geographical record); C. falconis (Johnston & Best, 1943) Golvan, 1956 from Spilornis cheela (Latham) in Sri Lanka (new geographical record); C. globocaudatus (Zeder, 1800) Lu¨he, 1911 from Falco ardosiaceus Vieillot (new host record) in West Africa; and C. milvus Ward, 1956 from Milvus migrans (Boddaert) in India. The species are described and figured on the basis of this material. Introduction The species Centrorhynchus Lu¨he, 1911 are para- sites mainly of birds of the orders Falconiformes and Strigiformes, but a few species are known from mammals and reptiles. With almost 90 species, this is the largest acanthocephalan genus occurring in birds (Golvan, 1994). Most of the species are known on the basis of only a few records; therefore, data on their variability are scarce. The aim of the present paper is to describe acanthocephalans of the genus Centrorhynchus deposited in the Parasitic Worms Collection at The Natural History Museum, London, in order to provide new data on their morphology, geo- graphical distribution and host-range. Materials and methods The present study was based on acanthocephalan species from the Collection of Parasitic Worms in the Department of Zoology at the Natural History Museum, London (BMNH). In most cases infor- mation on the fixation methods used for the material is not available, but the specimens are currently stores in 80% alcohol (‘spirit’). These were cleared in glycerine (25–100%) or lactophenol and studied as temporary mounts. Other speci- mens from the Collection, mounted on slides in Canada balsam, were studied as permanent whole- mounts. The descriptions are based on specimens from one locality and a single host specimen. Measure- ments are given in millimetres, unless otherwise stated, as a range, with any individual measure- ments outside the normal range in parentheses. *Author for correspondence (E-mail: zmd@uni-sz.bg) Systematic Parasitology (2005) 62:117–134 Ó Springer 2005 DOI 10.1007/s11230-005-5486-7