Two new species of Mazocraes Hermann (Monogenea: Mazocraeidae) from clupeoid fishes off Visakhapatnam, Bay of Bengal

Two new species of Mazocraes Hermann (Monogenea: Mazocraeidae) are described infecting clupeoid fishes of Visakhapatnam coast, Bay of Bengal: Mazocraes bengalensis n. sp. from Opisthopterus tardoore Cuvier and M. stolephorusi n. sp. from Stolephorus indicus van Hasselt and S. commersoni Lacepede. L. bengalensis n.sp. is distinguished from the most closely related species ( M. gussevi , M. australis , M. alosae , M. mamaevi ) by the combination of following characters: Body size, extent of caeca, number and arrangement of testes, size and structure of the clamps and the armature of genital complex. M. stolephorusi n. sp. differs from all the other species of Mazocraes in the pedunculate nature and the sizes of the haptoral clamps and the structure of the genital complex. A detailed analysis of the species of the genus Mazocraes is presented. The partial 28SrDNa sequences of M. bengalensis was generated and deposited in the GenBank.