Three new species of Spiniloculus (Cestoda: Tetraphyllidea) from Chiloscyllium punctatum (Elasmobranchii: Orectolobiformes) off Borneo with clarification of the identity of the type of the genus.

The type species (Spiniloculus mavensis Southwell, 1925) of the previously monotypic tetraphyllidean genus Spiniloculus Southwell, 1925 is redescribed from the type material from Moreton Bay, Australia. As a consequence the identity of this species is definitively resolved. Three new species in the genus, all collected from Chiloscyllium punctatum Müller et Henle (brownbanded bambooshark), in Borneo, are described. Spiniloculus calhouni sp. n. conspicuously differs from all three of its congeners in its possession of post-poral testes. Spiniloculus fylerae sp. n. and Spiniloculus paigeae sp. n. differ from their two other congeners in that they are relatively small worms (4-6.5 and 2.2-5 mm in total length, respectively) with fewer than 30 proglottids. They can be distinguished from one another in that, while the vitelline follicles are interrupted at the level of its ovary in S. fylerae, this is not the case in S. paigeae. Furthermore, whereas the cirrus sac of the former species is pyriform, it is elongate-oval in the latter species. This brings the total number of species in the genus to four, and lends support to the suggestion that the original identity of the type host of S. mavensis as Mustelus sp. was in error. This work also extends the range of the genus to include the island of Borneo. A key to the species of Spiniloculus is provided. Morphological data generated here, using both light and scanning electron microscopy, support the suggested close affinities between Spiniloculus and Yorkeria Southwell, 1927, both of which parasitize bamboosharks.