Redescription of Synthesium pontoporiae N. Comb. with Notes on S. tursionis and S. seymouri N. Comb. (Digenea: Brachycladiidae Odhner, 1905)

Synthesium pontoporiae n. comb. is redescribed, together with Synthesium tursionis and Synthesium seymouri n. comb.; the parasites were obtained from stranded and accidentally caught cetaceans. The sucker ratio (ratio between widths of the oral and ventral suckers) in S. pontoporiae was 1:1.8–3.0 (mean 1:2.2); in S. tursionis was 1:0.8–1.2; and in S. seymouri was 1:0.5–0.7. Synthesium pontoporiae differed from its congeners by additional diagnostic characters, including: oval to lobed testes; small cirrus with pyriform proximal region and flexible, tubular distal region formed by evagination of ejaculatory duct; and vitellarium in small follicles extending from the level of the seminal vesicle to the posterior extremity of the body and not forming dendritic radial bunches. Data on the morphology of adult S. pontoporiae and S. tursionis were inferred from confocal laser microscopical observations.